2004 Reit im Winkl GER

The Old Boys of the ski jumping world gathered in March 2004 in the tiny village of Reit im Winkl, Germany, for sport and fellowship. The village lies in far southern Germany, in Bavaria just at the northern edge of the Alps. So strong is the tie to Bavaria that during the opening ceremonies of IMC 15, they played the Bavarian hymn rather than the national anthem of Germany. The jumping complex located about a mile from the village center consists of four jumps, a pony lift, and several service buildings.

The K-57 meter jump is in the middle and to its west, a K-30 and a K-18 jump share a small landing. On the east side are the lift and the big hill, recently increased to full 90 meter size by digging a huge pit in the outrun. The track on the 90 was world class, while tracks on the smaller hills suffered a bit from the lack of proper guide rails for the static-scoop track-making drag. The Jumping facility is quite nice and the hills were very well prepared for the competitions. Machine-groomed cross country trails criss-cross the entire valley, and races for Nordic Combined competition were held at the Cross Country stadium behind the fire station and the Festsaal.

The event was organized by the Reit im Winkl Wintersportsverein with the cooperation of many villagers who played major or minor roles. Hans-Peter Wimmer was the IMC Director and Walter Vogel (left), the Chief of Competition, was ably assisted by Chief of Jumping Hill Stefan Auer, Chief of X-C course Franz Hauser, Race secretary Gretl Höflinger and Karl Schlechter who did all the computer scoring. Hans Schuster took entries and Barbara Raab handled many of the tasks involving housing, transportation and fee payment. (Our apologies to those who should have been mentioned but were not.)

The IMC is different from any other event in many ways, and its management requires great patience and flexibility, both of which were demonstrated by Vogel and his people. Indeed the Chief of Competition was seldom seen without a big, welcoming smile on his face.

When organizers posted an early entry list on the web, we were delighted to see that Austria would join us for the first time, with a team of six. What we didn't know until competition began is that Slovenia would also be a first-time participant.

GOOD and BAD on the 57 The premier event of the IMC, the event with the largest start list, is the medium size hill, this year K-57. Anticipating a very long 57 meter competition, WSV officials announced two decisions in the Wednesday evening Team Leaders Meeting. First, with plenty of open training on Tuesday and Wednesday, there would be no trial round. Second, with precedent from prior IMCs, the field would be split, with the older half completing both of their competitive jumps before the younger skiers begin. First the good news. IMC co-founder Guttorm Bakke is a very good ski jumper with a whole drawer-full of IMC gold medals. However, he missed the first half of the 2004 season as doctors tried to sort out an infection. On Wednesday, Guttorm came out to the hill and looked distinguished while he chatted with his friends, but he didn't put on his skis. On Thursday, he came out again and soaked in the sunshine but again, he didn't ski. Observers wondered whether Bakke would compete on Thursday, but at ten o'clock, there he was at the top of the hill. Operating on talent and experience, Guttorm proceeded to put down jumps of 47 and 50.5 meters, giving him a lead of thirty points over his nearest competitor. Indeed, his performance would have given him a gold medal in either of the next two younger age groups! Now the bad news. When the Team Leaders Meeting ended, organizers were still not able to say just how the start list would be split – which age groups would ski in the first half of the competition. This information was available at the competition office after the opening ceremony, but communication broke down and five jumpers from Finland missed their start because they thought that their age group (45-49) would jump in the second half. In response to a protest from the Finnish team, organizers permitted the skiers in question to jump at the beginning of the second session, agreeing to make the final resolution later. Now it was Norway's turn to protest. "Our skiers would have acted differently if the Finns had been present at the start." Finally, this argument prevailed and the scores of the Finns were not counted – a sad moment for IMC.

Weather for the competition was wonderful. A light snow cleared up on Tuesday and on Wednesday, the sun came out and stayed for the duration of the festivities. Each day seemed perfect, but then the next day would be even nicer. Each night, temperatures dropped well into the twenties; then the blazing sun warmed things up and softened the outruns. However, the hills are well sheltered by spruce trees so the tracks were fast and the landings were firm.

Thursday morning at ten o'clock, 66 jumpers aged 45 and up lined up to compete on the 57 meter hill. At one o'clock that afternoon, the remaining 65 younger competitors got their chance. Then, after a short break, action moved to the 18 meter hill where 29 athletes, including the oldest of the Old Boys, put on a show.

Friday morning, blessed with blazing sun and just a breath of breeze, 104 skiers competed on the 30 meter jump and in the afternoon, 67 jumpers pulled on their number bibs to ski the 90 meter hill.

This race wasn't settled out on the course.
Behind is the Festsaal, site of the banquet.

70-74 1 65-69 11 60-64 10 55-59 23 50-54 28 45-49 23 40-44 24 35-39 31 30-34 33

When it was all over, 184 skiers from twelve nations had made 410 starts in five events. At the left is a breakdown of the 184 competitors by age group. It was gratifying to see that every nation went home with medals.

Double gold medal performances by Aarne Kuisma and Thorbjorn Nygard were overshadowed by Geir Rune Lislegaard who took home three golds.

This small group played during dinner.

Awards were to be presented on the outrun after each event, but the medals arrived late so a monster award ceremony was held Friday afernoon for the four jumping events. As usual, prizes for the team jump and Nordic Combined were awarded at the Saturday night banquet, held in the Festsaal. The music at the banquet started with a live rendition of a ski jumping anthem Jump and Fly composed by professional musician and IMC competitor Anton Zapf.
A traditional Bavarian band followed, playing first for a Bavarian dance troupe, then more quietly for dinner, finally for dancing.

Compact results from IMC 2004 are now available (quick to load, easy to read)
[ K-18 ] [ K-30 ] [ K-57 ] [ K-90 ] [ NC ] [ Team ]
Official results are also available in .pdf format on the organizer's web site.
(These are a good source for printing your own results sheets.)

You can browse through pictures of the medalists, grouped by event:
[ K-18 ] [ K-30 ] [ K-57 ] [ K-90 ] [ NC ]
or a nice photo gallery on the Russian Masters site.

The IMC Committee held its annual meeting on Friday evening in the Festsaal.
Villach, Austria was chosen to host IMC 2005, and the following officers were elected:

New President Klaus Gunther

Vice President Torbjorn Haugen

NC Coordinator Ake Saloniemi

Ex-President Alf Tore Haug

You may want to read the minutes of the meeting.

Here are the names of the medalists from IMC 2004 in Reit im Winkl, GER:
[This listing is wide, use your horizontal slider (if necessary) to view all five columns.]