Philipp Raimund only drank one beer after his fairytale Olympic victory. Together with the German team in the hallway because the rooms in the Olympic Village in Predazzo are too small for a big party. Then at some point Germany’s new ski jumping hero just wanted to sleep, after all, the Olympic mixed competition was on Tuesday evening.
“I hope I don’t wake up tomorrow, the medal is no longer there and it was all a dream,” he had previously explained on his two-hour media tour: “My life will probably change now, but I still have no idea what to expect.”
There’s probably no need to worry about Philipp Raimund, 25 years old. He remained true to himself even in the biggest moment of his sporting life: The extroverted exception in the middle of the rather rational ski jumping circus repeatedly cheered on the fans in the stands decorated with black, red and gold flags, who celebrated him with “Philipp, Philipp chants”. Totally emotional, but not aloof.
Then the only fifth German individual Olympic champion in history in ski jumping after Helmut Recknagel (1960), Hans-Georg Aschenbach (1976), Jens Weißflog (1984 and 1994) and teammate Andreas Wellinger (2018) fired off his usual firework of sayings. “I’m incredibly proud of myself. Not a single World Cup victory yet, but now the Olympic gold is here,” said Raimund. And he also threw a volleyball that fans had thrown at him into the audience.
Raimund needs the really big stage
Already before these winter games Raimund had brutally openly declared that he was “really keen” and “really keen” to win a medal at his first Winter Olympics. An astonishing statement for a man who had won the overall ranking of the Summer Grand Prix and reached the World Cup podium five times this winter, but had never been at the top.
Apparently it took the biggest stage, the Olympics, for the great entertainer Philipp Raimund to find the last piece of the puzzle to make the jump to the top.
“Perhaps the feeling of a big event for the first victory has been missing so far. There are people who can be inspired by pressure,” explained the Olympic champion, who was born in Göppingen. This is exactly what sets him apart from the rest of the German ski jumping team.
Even at the winter highlight of the Four Hills Tournament, others complained about the pressure from fans and the media, while Raimund visibly enjoyed swimming in the crowd despite a bad cold. In the past, national coach Stefan Horngacher often had the feeling that he had to slow down his new top flyer.
Nice guy with a good jump
“We had a lot of arguments there and things got really messy,” reported the head coach. However, Raimund learned to focus even better on the important points in ski jumping without giving up his special personality. Like that the rather publicity-shy national coach who will be leaving his post at the end of the season.
“Philipp is a really fine guy and an incredible athlete,” says Horngacher: “Extremely good athletically, mentally on top, with incredible technique that only very few can jump.” Andreas Wellinger describes it as Raimund’s greatest strength that he “rushes away from the take-off table like a crazy feather.” In terms of take-off, Raimund is probably the strongest ski jumper in the world at the moment.
That’s why Raimund only had two things in mind for his Olympic appearance: keep his legs together during the run-up and then “just stand up” when taking off. That was enough for Olympic gold in the first attempt for a ski jumper who only got his latent fear of heights under control with the help of a psychologist.
The best thing about the historic triumph for him was that he was able to celebrate down in the ski jump run with at least part of his large (ski jumping) crazy family. Father Christian was missing because he was coaching the Swiss women’s national team at the same time in Seefeld. Just like sister Sina, to whom the Olympic champion owes his nickname “Hille” – as a toddler she simply couldn’t pronounce the name Philipp.
The big brother as a motivator
In addition to mother Kathrin, little brother Joel, who had been given extra time off from school, was happy. And of course his big brother Fabian, who once motivated him to start his ski jumping career. He was one of the first to congratulate the champion. “I actually wanted to be at the top myself,” said Fabian Raimund with a grin.
Now his little brother is standing there and it couldn’t be the end of his fairytale Olympic story: In addition to the mixed competition, Philipp Raimund has two more chances for gold on the large hill.