Winter Olympics: Schmitt: Marius Lindvik’s perfect flight helps achieve the impossible and beat Ryoyu Kobayashi

ByEurosport

Updated 13/02/2022 at 06:19 GMT

It was an astonishing day for the Norwegian ski jumping team as 23-year-old rising star delivered on his immense potential by taking gold in the large hill on Saturday. In the Cube Martin Schmitt, a former German ski jumper, joins Greg Rutherford to talk through Lindvik’s performance as well as the other medal-winners.

‘He made the impossible the possible’ – Schmitt explains how Lindvik beat Kobayashi

Former Olympic gold medal winner Martin Schmitt has hailed the performance of Norway’s Marius Lindvik, saying that his win on Saturday was totally deserved.

Lindvik, 23, took gold on the large hill ahead of Ryoyu Kobayashi with the Japanese star having to settle for silver.

Whilst Lindvik’s win was seen as a surprise to some, Schmitt pointed out that he has had a great season so far and had been one of the most consistent jumpers so far in Beijing.

Beijing 2022

Lindvik stuns Kobayashi to take ski jumping gold in the large hill

12/02/2022 at 16:09

“It’s a big day for Norwegian ski jumping,” Schmitt told Greg Rutherford in the Eurosport Cube.

'The gold is his' - Lindvik celebrates surprise ski jumping Olympic triumph

“Marius put in an excellent performance, especially his second jump was really amazing. He made the impossible possible to beat Ryoyo Kobayashi in Beijing.

“Here we can see his perfect flight [gesturing to footage of Lindvik’s jump], amazing style and the telemark. A great success for the Norwegian team and we can say congratulations team Norway.”

Schmitt went on to praise Lindvik’s potential and argued that in some aspects this should not have been too big a surprise.

“He really is a big talent, he won several World Cup competitions this season. I think he was the best man on the hills in Beijing so far.

“He won qualification on the normal hill, he won qualification large hill so I think after this great competition he totally deserved the gold medal.”

'Good enough' - Lindvik takes shock ski jumping gold ahead of Kobayashi

Talking about Kobayashi, the winner of the normal hill event, Schmitt said a few small details cost him the chance of a double-gold but ultimately it came down to someone being superior on the day.

“He made a perfect jump in the first round, a hill record at 142.0m.

“In the second round he was a bit late in the take-off and in the first flight phase he didn’t have his stable flight position so he cannot push the jump. He cannot go forward and take a huge speed in the flight and he lost a few metres.

“For Ryoyu it was a great competition but one guy was better today.”

The real winner for Schmitt though was his compatriot Karl Geiger, who won his first individual medal with bronze.

“Yeah I’m really proud of him and the whole German team. They had a huge disappointment in the normal hill and just in time for the competition Karl was able to show his best jumps,

“Yesterday we didn’t think this was possible so what he did was amazing.”

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