Four Hills Tournament for women? Schmid remains skeptical

The Four Hills Tournament has been held since 1953, but only for men. Now, more than 70 years later, a women’s edition could finally debut across Oberstdorf, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Innsbruck, and Bischofshofen in the coming season. Despite this step forward, leading ski jumpers Katharina Schmid (Germany) and Eva Pinkelnig (Austria) still have reservations.

Recently, the Austrian Ski Federation (ÖSV) and the state of Tyrol agreed to fund floodlights at Innsbruck’s Bergisel, the only one of the four venues previously without lights. Without floodlights, competitions there had to be held in daylight, creating scheduling bottlenecks and leaving no room for women to compete on the same day as the men. With the upgrades, FIS and its ski jumping race director Sandro Pertile have now given the green light.

According to current plans, the women’s competitions would be staged on the men’s qualification days. This setup has already been tested in Garmisch-Partenkirchen over the past two years during the Two-Night Tour. This winter, women are slated to jump at 13:00 on New Year’s Eve in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, followed by the men’s qualification at 16:00. The second stop for Schmid and her peers would be Oberstdorf on January 1.

Schmid calls the women’s Four Hills Tournament “long overdue,” noting that the athletes have been waiting years for this opportunity. Still, she cautions that “we’ll only be sure when it actually happens,” and is hesitant to celebrate prematurely.

Pinkelnig shares the caution. The 2022/23 overall World Cup winner says there is, so far, only a verbal commitment: “Some written contracts are still missing.” She compares the situation to the run-up to women’s ski flying in 2023/24: the athletes only felt certain once the first starter actually went down the in-run. The verbal approval is motivating, Pinkelnig adds, but real euphoria will come “when it’s black on white.”

Source: BR’s Blickpunkt Sport segment, aired December 7, 2025.