SKIJUMPING “Over the Mountain”

Innsbruck was challenged by frequent rain and winds, with particularly large challenges, which were addressed using innovative technologies.

Peter Riedel is a cheerful man, and this almost all the time. When the sun shines, he smiles too. And when it storms and snow is coming, he still smiles. Because he knows: the approach tracks he designed and manufactured ensure safe and fair conditions for all athletes, from the first to the last, on the approach.

The approach is a key element in ski jumping. If the track is dull, speed is low—missing kilometers per hour show up in the distance. If the track is too dull due to snow and/or water, it becomes dangerous—and the event could be halted.

A challenging situation like this faced the organizers of the Bergisel Jump in Innsbruck. As part of the Four Hills Tournament, the caravan coming from Garmisch was met with wind and rain. “The meteorological conditions would have become a problem with the old track,” said Ernst Vettori, Nordic Sports Director of the Austrian Ski Association. Peter Riedel, with a service man and his own cooling technician on site, could reassure. “Thanks to our new ice-working technologies, where cooling occurs directly in the 7.5 cm thick ice block, and the grooves in the ice that ensure the best possible water drainage, the Riedel track withstands the external conditions and provides safe and fair conditions for all jumpers.”

Thus the Riedel track did not experience a fire baptism but a water baptism in Innsbruck. But one way or another: the inventor and entrepreneur shone for several reasons. Not only was his know-how and work in Innsbruck valued by international experts and media representatives—but with Bergisel, Riedel laid the track for successful jumps at a second Tournee hill. “We are basically ‘over the mountain.’ In Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which, from Innsbruck’s perspective, lies on the other side of the Nordkette, we have been working with the local organizing committee for ten years, and this partnership laid the basis for much that followed,” says the Saxon-born Riedel.

Thus his company, based in Raschau-Markersbach in Saxony, has installed various approach runs on 55 hills in the last ten years, including the ski flying hill at Kulm in Bad Mitterndorf, Austria; in Nizhny Tagil, Russia; in Zao, Japan; in Courchevel, France; and most recently at the cradle of ski jumping at Oslo’s Holmenkollen.
An end to the success story is not in sight. In April 2018, the next Tournee hill will be equipped with a Riedel track. “Then our technology will also be used in Bischofshofen, where the Tournee winner is crowned every year on January 6,” Riedel anticipates. “That pleases and honors us already!”

No wonder Peter Riedel has every reason to beam. And this is true regardless of what the weather forecast says.