Aleksander Zniszczoł sparked controversy and now explains: “I just wanted to end the interview”

Polish ski jumper Aleksander Zniszczoł has become a lightning rod for criticism among some fans, who blame him for Poland’s struggles in ski jumping. Online comments have intensified this season, often targeting him after weaker results. Zniszczoł says much of the animosity stems from remarks he made late last season.

Asked on Saturday whether he reads the internet, Zniszczoł replied that he sometimes does but has recently stopped. When told about the latest wave of online reactions, he initially felt awkward but then answered: “Come to the hill.” The line, widely criticized online, was not meant as a provocation, he explains. “It was a question that surprised me and I just wanted to end the conversation. ‘Come to the hill’ means: come, watch, see the conditions, buy tickets for competitions. Because public opinion is critical of me, those words are being interpreted differently. I don’t understand it,” he told Skijumping.pl.

Zniszczoł also revisited his headline-making comments from March, when, together with Dawid Kubacki on TVN, he said he was pleased to see coach Thomas Thurnbichler go and sharply assessed the Austrian’s work, suggesting a new coach would restore a good atmosphere and results. With a poor start under new head coach Maciej Maciusiak, those words have been thrown back at him.

“Would I say the same now? It’s hard to say; maybe I’d just phrase it differently,” Zniszczoł says. “Coming back from Planica, when the storm erupted, I watched and listened many times. I didn’t say anything other than what Adam Małysz, the coach or others had already said. I didn’t add anything new, yet public opinion focused on me. And that hit me hard.”

He adds that the fallout has lingered: “It’s not pleasant and I feel it has dragged on since Planica. When there was a ‘boom,’ whatever I said would have been wrong. I tried to calm it down, but some people didn’t let me. I wrote to Thomas [Thurnbichler]. I didn’t want to say anything bad—let’s be human, let’s respect each other. It wasn’t easy for me, and I know it continues. What can I do? Probably nothing right now.”

For now, he avoids social media and comment sections: “I’ve let it go. I hear what the atmosphere around me is like, and I don’t accept that. It’s not good for me. When things go well, I’ll come back,” he concluded.