Ski jumping star Stefan Kraft forgoes the possible overall victory in the Summer Grand Prix in order to collect the “Niki” in Vienna.
The final of this year’s summer ski jumping Grand Prix series will take place in Klingenthal next weekend. Stefan Kraft is foregoing his start in the Vogtland Arena in Saxony in order to be able to take part in the gala night of sports in the Wiener Stadthalle on Thursday evening. Both here and there, the ÖSV star has a good chance of winning overall, but Kraft has a clear preference. Because: “I think that I have a very good chance of becoming Austria’s athlete of the year. If I’m already nominated for the top 3, then of course I want to be there too. This is a unique opportunity,” said the 31-year-old. year-old Salzburgers.
In the ski jumping summer series, Kraft is only 18 points behind overall leader Paweł Wąsek from Poland before the final competition on Saturday, but Kraft is giving up this trophy voluntarily. Instead, he targets “Niki”. The trophy that is still missing from his proud collection. For men, kitesurfing Olympic champion Valentin Bontus and slalom World Cup winner Manuel Feller are the opponents of ski jumping overall World Cup winner and ski flying world champion Kraft. The Pongauer was already second and third in the election for Austria’s athlete of the year. In 2017, Kraft ski star Marcel Hirscher had to admit defeat, and in 2020 Dominic Thiem and David Alaba finished ahead of the ÖSV Adler. “I would choose myself this time,” Kraft recently said with a smile on the ORF program “Sport am Sonntag”. “That’s something I’m still missing in my career. I hope I can do it this time.”
