Andre Kiesewetter won the last ski jumping in Lake Placid in 1990. Now the first German V-Springer is back in the USA in a new role – and remembers the turning point and how a new anthem suddenly sounded for him. Shortly thereafter, his career collapses.
Lake Placid, Olympic ski jump, freezing wind. Andre Kiesewetter is back after 33 years and he can hardly believe it himself. “I haven’t been here since 1990. I climbed straight onto the beam and reviewed everything up there,” says the 53-year-old on the phone, sounding thoughtful and then laughing again the next moment.
Kiesewetter traveled to the USA as a physiotherapist for the Swiss ski jumpers. For the first time since 1990, a World Cup is taking place there today (4 p.m. / ZDF and Eurosport), the last winner there is still called – Andre Kiesewetter. At that time, the Thuringian won the first competition after reunification, and that in V-style, which he was the first German jumper to master.
An injury to Jens Weißflog earned him a place in the all-German team for the first time. “I was incredibly nervous. Our assistant coach Walter Hofer then said: ‘Kiese, if someone had told you in GDR times that you were going to the USA, you wouldn’t have believed it. So enjoy it.'” And he enjoyed it it. In the second round he flew ten meters further than the rest and won despite the point deduction for the V-style.
On the podium, Kiesewetter got nervous again, because he heard the new anthem for the first time. “It was a very strange feeling. As children in the GDR we weren’t even allowed to think about this anthem. And then they play it for you. I wasn’t sure of the lyrics, I just moved my mouth a little,” says Kiesewetter 33 years later and laughs again.
Two weeks later he also won in Sapporo and drove to the Four Hills Tournament as the leader of the overall World Cup. But nothing worked there anymore. “I didn’t know it at all, this girl’s world. They followed me, I was so excited,” says Kiesewetter. At the final in Bischofshofen, he came in 60th out of 61 participants. He never won a World Cup again.
In Lake Placid, however, his name was even engraved on a plaque. “It hung in the lounge back then, every winner was immortalized there,” he recalls. So, 33 years later, he started looking, so far without success. “But the plaque should still exist. Maybe I can still find it.”
Andre Kiesewetter still has time until Monday, after which he will return to Europe. And then there will be a new World Cup winner, his direct successor. Isn’t it a pity that he loses this status at the weekend? “Iwo,” he says, “but I think it would be nice if someone won that nobody was counting on. Like me back then.”
