Training in the morning, first for the ladies (from 9.30), then for the men (from 1.45 p.m.), and in the second part of the day jumping together as part of a mixed team (from 4.15 p.m.) – this is the plan for Friday in Lillehammer.
After long months of waiting, the new World Cup season is finally starting. After a very poor last winter for the Polish national team, we hope that things will be much better now. But we certainly don't expect miracles in the competition we will get at the beginning.
We knew this would happen
– I don't see any big chances for a good place on Friday – said Adam Małysz in Eurosport 11 years ago. – We know perfectly well that our players are not yet at a high level – he added. Unfortunately, today the president of the Polish Ski Association could repeat this statement one to one.
Then, when we watched the first Polish mixed performance, we hoped that the Polish women would make significant progress in the next few years, that we would reach the top and start achieving success. Today we will all probably agree that it would be a success for our mixed team to reach the second round series.
Then among 14 starters teams Poland was definitely the worst. On a 98-meter HS hill, Joanna Szwab jumped only 68.5 meters, and Magdalena Pałasz – 73 meters. The only competitor worse than them was the Finnish Susanna Forsstroem, who also fell on the boule and was measured 66.5 meters.
– I think the girls know that there is still a lot of work ahead of them, but it was a very good move to show that something is happening in our world. In a few years, mixed skiing will enter the arena of the Olympic Games, so a little work, perseverance and something may come of it in a few years – Łukasz Kruczek analyzed in an interview with skijumping.pl. Then he was the men's coach Polish national team. A few years later, in 2019, he took over the women's team. Unfortunately, he failed to take the players to a higher level.
Master Stoch's class
Kamil Stoch looked very kindly at the first trials of the teenage debutants from our team in 2013 in Lillehammer. He was already a successful competitor, because a few months earlier he had become world champion, and together with his friends he won bronze in the team competition in Predazzo. – I would like to thank the girls for agreeing to come here and taking part. This is quite a feat for them and for me they are heroes and I am glad that I could jump with them in this competition – commented Stoch in a post-competition conversation with skijumping.pl. And during the competition, the cameras showed Stoch applauding Szwab and Pałasz's unsuccessful attempts.
Stoch himself did not jump well in that competition either. His 88.5 meters was an average result. Maciej Kot did much better, landing on 98 meters and having a score of 21.8 points higher than the leader of our team.
In the end, Poland was eliminated after the first series with a score of 331.8 points, which was 25.7 points lower than the score of the penultimate Americans. We were 60.2 points behind the eighth-placed Canadians at the halfway point, so we were about 30 meters away from advancing to the final round. On a normal hill it's a chasm.
Now in Lillehammer, mixed doubles will compete on the large hill (HS 140). Interestingly, there is a possibility that Stoch and Kot will again represent Poland in the men's team. Everything will become clear after training.
Rlive coverage on Sport.pl, broadcasts on Eurosport, TVN and on the MAX platform.