2002–03 Four Hills Tournament

The 51st edition of the annual Four Hills Tournament was held in the traditional venues: Oberstorf and Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany, and Innsbruck and Bischofshofen in Austria. The defending champion was Sven Hannawald. After being the first ski jumper to win on all four hills in the previous year, he also won the first event of 2003-04. This fifth consecutive victory at a Four Hills tournament equalized a record set by Helmut Recknagel in the late 1950s. Kamil Stoch achieved the same feat in 2018.

Four Hills Tournament
at the 2002-03 FIS Ski Jumping World Cup
VenuesSchattenbergschanze, Große Olympiaschanze, Bergiselschanze, Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze
LocationGermany, Austria
Dates28 December 2002 (2002-12-28) – 6 January 2003 (2003-01-06)
Competitors110 from 20 nations
Medalists
gold medal 
silver medal 
bronze medal 

The tournament victor was Janne Ahonen, who had already won the tournament four years prior, and would continue to win it three more times, becoming the most successful athlete of the Four Hills tournament.

Format

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At each of the four events, a qualification round was held. The 50 best jumpers qualified for the competition. The fifteen athletes leading the World Cup at the time qualified automatically. In case of an omitted qualification or a result that would normally result in elimination, they would instead qualify as 50th.

Unlike the procedure at normal World Cup events, the 50 qualified athletes were paired up for the first round of the final event, with the winner proceeding to the second round. The rounds start with the duel between #26 and #25 from the qualification round, followed by #27 vs #24, up to #50 vs #1. The five best duel losers, so-called 'Lucky Losers' also proceed.

For the tournament ranking, the total points earned from each jump are added together. The World Cup points collected during the four events are disregarded in this ranking.

Pre-Tournament World Cup Standings

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At the time of the tournament, eight out of twenty-eight events were already held.

The standings were as follows:[1]

Rank Name Points
01.   Martin Höllwarth 469
02.   Janne Ahonen 427
03.   Andreas Widhölzl 405
04.   Sigurd Pettersen 396
05.   Adam Małysz 381
06.   Michael Uhrmann 320
07.   Andreas Goldberger 279
08.   Primož Peterka 278
09.   Sven Hannawald 224
10.   Andreas Kofler 220
  Peter Žonta 220

Participating nations and athletes

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The number of jumpers a nation was allowed to nominate was dependent on previous results. At each event, a 'national group' of ten jumpers from the host country was added.

The defending champion was Sven Hannawald. Six other competitors had also previously won the Four Hills tournament: Andreas Goldberger in 1992-93 and 1994–95, Primož Peterka in 1996-97, Kazuyoshi Funaki in 1997-98, Janne Ahonen in 1998-99, Andreas Widhölzl in 1999-00 and Adam Małysz in 2000-01.

The following athletes were nominated:

Nation Starting Spots Number of Athletes Athletes
  Germany 8+10 19 Michael Uhrmann, Sven Hannawald, Georg Spaeth, Martin Schmitt, Christof Duffner, Stefan Pieper, Maximilian Mechler, Michael Neumayer (not in Innsbruck), Stephan Hocke (until Innsbruck)
National Group: Alexander Herr, Jörg Ritzerfeld, Kai Bracht, Michael Möllinger, Dirk Else, Ferdinand Bader, Frank Ludwig, Daniel Klausmann, Frank Reichel (Oberstdorf only), Roland Audenrieth (Garmisch-Partenkirchen only)
  Austria 8 + 10 20 Martin Höllwarth, Andreas Widhölzl, Andreas Goldberger, Andreas Kofler, Florian Liegl, Mathias Hafele, Thomas Morgenstern, Martin Koch (until Innsbruck)
National Group: Reinhard Schwarzenberger, Wolfgang Loitzl, Stefan Thurnbichler, Christian Nagiller, Bastian Kaltenböck, Balthasar Schneider, Bernhard Metzler, Stefan Kaiser, Manuel Fettner, Markus Eigentler (Innsbruck only), Stefan Becker (Bischofshofen only), Michael Nagiller (Bischofshofen only)
  Bulgaria 1 1 Georgi Zharkov
  Czech Republic 3 4 Jakub Janda, Jan Matura, Lukáš Hlava (until Garmisch-Partenkirchen), Jiří Parma (Innsbruck onward)
  Estonia 3 3 Jens Salumäe, Jaan Jüris (not Innsbruck), Jouko Hein (Garmisch-Partenkirchen only)
  Finland 8 8 Janne Ahonen, Arttu Lappi, Matti Hautamäki, Tami Kiuru, Akseli Kokkonen, Veli-Matti Lindström, Jussi Hautamäki, Risto Jussilainen
  France 3 3 Nicolas Dessum (Innsbruck onward, Emmanuel Chedal (Innsbruck onward, Maxime Remy (Innsbruck only)
  Italy 3 3 Roberto Cecon, Alessio Bolgnani, Giancarlo Adami
  Japan 5 5 Noriaki Kasai, Kazuyoshi Funaki, Hideharu Miyahira, Hiroki Yamada, Kazuya Yoshioka
  Kazakhstan 3 3 Pawel Gaiduk, Stanislav Filimonov, Maxim Polunin
  Netherlands 2 2 Ingemar Mayr, Christoph Kreuzer (Innsbruck onward)
  Norway 8 8 Sigurd Pettersen, Roar Ljøkelsøy, Bjørn Einar Romøren, Kim-Roar Hansen, Henning Stensrud, Lars Bystøl, Tommy Ingebrigtsen, Anders Bardal
  Poland 4 5 Adam Małysz, Marcin Bachleda, Tomasz Pochwała, Tomisław Tajner (until Garmisch-Partenkirchen), Robert Mateja (Bischofshofen only)
  Russia 4 5 Valery Kobelev, Ildar Fatchullin, Ilya Rosliakov, Alexei Silaev (until Innsbruck), Dmitri Vassiliev (Bischofshofen only)
  Slovakia 2 2 Martin Mesík, Dušan Oršula
  Slovenia 6 6 Primož Peterka, Peter Žonta, Damjan Fras, Robert Kranjec, Igor Medved, Rok Benkovič (Innsbruck onward)
  South Korea 4 4 Kim Hyun-ki, Kang Chil-ku, Choi Yong-jik (until Innsbruck), Choi Heung-chul (until Innsbruck)
  Sweden 2 2 Kristoffer Jåfs, Isak Grimholm
  Switzerland 4 4 Simon Ammann, Andreas Küttel, Marco Steinauer (until Innsbruck), Sylvain Freiholz (Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Innsbruck)
  United States 3 3 Alan Alborn, Clint Jones (until Garmisch-Partenkirchen), Tommy Schwall (until Garmisch-Partenkirchen)

Results

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Oberstorf

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  Schattenbergschanze, Oberstorf
28-29 December 2002

Qualification winner:   Roar Ljøkelsøy

Rank Name Points
1   Sven Hannawald 263.1
2   Martin Höllwarth 257.7
3   Janne Ahonen 257.5
4   Martin Schmitt 252.5
5   Andreas Kofler 245.1
6   Roar Ljøkelsøy 243.6
7   Primož Peterka 239.7
8   Peter Žonta 239.0
9   Thomas Morgenstern 237.4
10   Florian Liegl 236.8

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

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  Große Olympiaschanze, Garmisch-Partenkirchen
31 December 2002 - 1 January 2003

The second event saw three former tournament winners on the podium, two of which have not even placed in the Top Ten in Oberstorf. The first event's winner Sven Hannawald on the other hand, only placed 12th (235.1p).

Qualification winner:   Thomas Morgenstern

Rank Name Points
1   Primož Peterka 264.6
2   Andreas Goldberger 261.1
  Adam Małysz 261.1
4   Roar Ljøkelsøy 256.1
5   Janne Ahonen 255.6
6   Simon Ammann 247.9
7   Hideharu Miyahira 245.9
8   Andreas Kofler 245.5
9   Andreas Widhölzl 239.8
10   Martin Höllwarth 236.9

Innsbruck

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  Bergiselschanze, Innsbruck
03-4 January 2003

The jumbled results of the first two events saw Janne Ahonen in the lead after the tournament's first half. With a clear victory in Innsbruck, the Finn increased his lead in the overall ranking to 26.7 points.

Again, the winner of the previous event could not be found in the Top Ten. Peterka placed 15th (198.1p).

Qualification winner:   Stefan Thurnbichler

Rank Name Points
1   Janne Ahonen 227.5
2   Florian Liegl 218.7
3   Martin Höllwarth 216.6
4   Sven Hannawald 215.7
5   Andreas Widhölzl 214.4
6   Adam Małysz 211.9
7   Roar Ljøkelsøy 210.6
8   Andreas Goldberger 208.4
9   Martin Schmitt 206.9
10   Andreas Kofler 204.6

Bischofshofen

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  Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze, Bischofshofen
6 January 2003

Due to bad weather, the qualification was postponed to January 6, and instead of Sudden Death match-ups in the first round, the usual World Cup format was used.

The surprise winner was 21-year-old Bjørn Einar Romøren, whose best position during the tournament so far had been a 15th place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It was his first World Cup victory.

Janne Ahonen performed two solid jumps and his comfortable lead in the overall ranking was not in danger.

Qualification winner:   Thomas Morgenstern

Rank Name Points
1   Bjørn Einar Romøren 263.1
2   Sven Hannawald 262.4
  Andreas Kofler 262.4
4   Janne Ahonen 259.3
5   Sigurd Pettersen 257.0
6   Thomas Morgenstern 255.5
7   Adam Małysz 253.0
8   Primož Peterka 252.3
9   Florian Liegl 250.5
10   Roberto Cecon 248.1

Final ranking

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Rank Name Oberstorf Garmisch-Partenkirchen Innsbruck Bischofshofen Points
1   Janne Ahonen 3rd 5th 1st 4th 999.9
2   Sven Hannawald 1st 12th 4th 2nd 976.3
3   Adam Małysz 13th 2nd 6th 7th 959.7
4   Andreas Kofler 5th 8th 10th 2nd 957.6
5   Primož Peterka 7th 1st 15th 8th 954.7
6   Roar Ljøkelsøy 6th 4th 7th 15th 949.3
7   Martin Höllwarth 2nd 10th 3rd 16th 945.6
8   Florian Liegl 10th 17th 2nd 9th 934.2
9   Andreas Goldberger 14th 2nd 8th 22nd 923.0
10   Thomas Morgenstern 9th 25th 12th 6th 912.8

The winner of Bischofshofen, Bjørn Einar Romøren, had failed to proceed to the second round of Oberstorf and only placed 19th overall (801.4p).

References

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  1. ^ ""e.on ruhrgas" FIS World Cup Ski-Jumping 2002/2003 World Cup Standings" (PDF). FIS. 2002.
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