Austria dominates team ski jumping
Schlierenzauer leads way with 146.5-metre jump in final round
Last Updated: Monday, February 22, 2010 | 5:43 PM ET
By Doug Harrison, CBC Sports
Austrian teammates Gregor Schlierenzauer, left, and Wolfgang Loitzl celebrate their gold medal in the men's ski jumping team event. (Al Bello/Getty Images)The Austrian Eagles, with Swiss star Simon Ammann out of the picture, had a clear path to the top of the ski jump podium and didn't disappoint.
They successfully defended their Olympic title with a 72.1-point victory over Germany in the final round of the large-hill team competition at a sunny Whistler Olympic Park on Monday afternoon.
Austria's Gregor Schlierenzauer, the last of 32 jumpers, nearly added a Winter Games record with a distance of 146.5 metres. But his jump score was brought down to 145.2 points after Schlierenzauer's left hand touched the ground upon landing.
Wolfgang Loitzl (141.8 points), Andreas Kofler (135.9) and Thomas Morgenstern (135) rounded out the squad, which has won the team World Cup for this season. The Austrians are also the reigning world champions.
Schlierenzauer added to his medal haul at the Vancouver Olympics after capturing bronze in the normal and large hill on the individual side. Ammann won both of those events but to the delight of Schlierenzauer and company, Switzerland didn't have a team entered Monday.
Germany took home the silver medal with a score of 1,035.8 while Norway, the 2009 world silver medallists, finished third (1,030.3).
Finland, Japan, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovenia rounded out the eight-country final.
Austria's bid for back-to-back Olympic gold was never in doubt as the Eagles downed the Germans by 38 points in the first round.
Loitzl, ranked fifth in the world, set the tone with a first jump of 138m on the strength of a good takeoff and height.
Kofler and Morgenstern added jumps of 132 and 135.5 points, respectively, before Schlierenzauer — at the tender age of 20 — showed off his powerful takeoff en route to topping 140m (140.5).
Morgenstern, a member of the 2006 Olympic winning team in Turin, Italy, was the only Austrian not to beat his first-round mark, dropping from 135.5m to 135m.
The battle for second place came down to the final three jumpers as Germany's Michael Uhrmann added to his string of strong performances of late with a 140m effort in the final round after travelling 135m earlier Monday.
He followed Norwegian Anders Jacobsen, who jumped 140.5m despite having to wait at least 10 minutes to perform because of a wind delay. However, the strong effort wasn't enough to give Norway the silver.
Earlier this month, the German foursome of Michael Neumayer, Andreas Wank, Martin Schmitt and Michael Uhrmann won their first team event in five years at Willingen, Germany.
The Canadian squad of 22-year-old Stefan Read, Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes, 18, Trevor Morrice, 18, and Eric Mitchell, 17, failed to advance to the final, finishing last in the 12-team first round with 294.6 points.
