Fettner returns Austria’s 2006 gold medal magic, anchors team event

Stefan Kraft, Daniel Huber and Jan Hoerl and Maneul Fettner of Team Austria celebrate the Gold medal following the Men's Ski jumping Final Round

The gold medal winner of the men’s team large hill event all came down to the final jump in the fourth group. Manuel Fettner anchored Austria’s team and delivered a huge jump right when they needed it the most to seal gold. He capped the Austrian team’s total points at 942.7.

Stefan Kraft, Daniel Huber and Jan Hoerl joined Fettner to steal the lead from Slovenia, who were in pursuit of another team gold after winning the mixed team event on Feb. 7. Slovenia took first after the 1st round and led the competition until the last jump in the final. They finished in second with 934.4 total points when they couldn’t match Fettner’s last jump.

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Before the final round got underway, Norway was shaping up to be the favorite going into the fourth round. Norway’s Halvor Egner Granerud, Daniel Andre Tande, Robert Johansson and Marius Lindvik landed convincing jumps in the 1st round and nailed their take-offs without leaving the ramp early to gain more distance. They flew to third place at the end of the third round and kept up with Slovenia and Austria until the final round. Germany beat them by .9 to clinch bronze.

Athletes started the final round in reverse order of the rankings after the third round. Austria was second to last in the fourth round and hoped they could land a better jump to hold off Slovenia who went last. Fettner grabbed the air in his final flight to anchor the Austrian team to gold. He earned extra style points for his great take-off, flight and landing technique and no other team could match it. Olympic gold was finally returned to the Austrians after a 12 year drought.

Austria won back-to-back gold medals in the men’s team event in 2006 Turin and 2010 Vancouver and secured the final Olympic gold ski jumping medal of the 2022 Winter Olympics. The men’s team large hill competition concluded the ski jumping program at the Winter Games.

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