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The Four Hills Tournament (Vierschanzentournee) is composed of four Ski Jumping World Cup events and has taken place in Germany and Austria each year since 1952. The tournament is second only to the World Cup and the Winter Olympics as the most sought after title on the ski jumping world circuit.
The Four Hills Tournament is comprised of four individual World Cup events and points gained in the Four Hills Tournament are added to points gained in other World Cup events throughout the season.
Tournament Hills
- | Hills | Place | Country | Date | Ramp Record | - | Schattenberg | Oberstdorf | Germany | 29th December | 143.5 m (2003) Sigurd Pettersen, Norway | - | Olympia | Garmisch-Partenkirchen | Germany | 1st January | 129.5 m (2001) Adam Małysz, Poland | - | Bergisel | Innsbruck | Austria | 4th January | 134.5 m (2002) Sven Hannawald, Germany | - | Paul-Ausserleitner | Bischofshofen | Austria | 6th January | 143 m (2005) Daiki Ito, Japan |
Knock-out system
One of the tournament's "specialities" is its a bit controversial system. Unlike at the other ski jumping events where the best 30 competitors of the first series qualify into the second series, all four tournament's events follow the so called knock-out system, first introduced in the 1996/97 season. 50 first series competitors are divided into 25 pairs. All 25 winners of those internal "duels" plus five best "lucky losers" qualify into the second series. This way, it is theoretically possible that a competitor with the 12th first series result does not qualify into the second series (if he loses his internal duel, five lucky losers and winners of their duels have better results) while the one with the 49th first series result may still qualify (if his "rival" has the worst result).
Previous Winners
List of combined Four Hills Tournament Winners
Records
Jens Weissflog (DDR/D) was the first ski jumper to have won the tournament fours times. He won the tournament in 1984, 1985, 1991 and 1996. Janne Ahonen (Finland) equalled his success in 2006 with his own fourth win. Behind him are Helmut Recknagel (DDR), Bjørn Wirkola (Nor) with three titles each.
Jens Weissflog and Bjørn Wirkola have both won ten individual competitions within the Four Hills Tournament. Matti Nykänen (FIN) is next with 7 victories.
During the 50th edition of the tournament (2001/2002), Sven Hannawald was the first person to win all four competitions in a single year.
Germany has the most winners with 16 (11 of which were pre-1989), next comes Finland with 15 victories and then Norway and Austria with 9 wins. Czechoslovakia and its successor Czech Republic have two wins altogether; the following countries all have a single victory: Japan, Slovenia, Poland and the USSR.
External link
- http://www.vierschanzen.org
Turné čtyř můstků | Vierschanzentournee | Nelja hüppemäe turnee | Tournée des quatre tremplins | Hoppvikan | Tournée dei quattro trampolini | Vierschansentoernooi | Hoppuka | Hoppveka | Turniej Czterech Skoczni | Turneja štirih skakalnic | Keski-Euroopan mäkiviikko | Tysk-österrikiska backhopparveckan
"Four Hills Tournament"