LA LOUPE Garmisch - Partenkirchen No. 1 - 2013/2014

engl. ⁄ Ever since 1922 Partenkirchen has been welcoming
the New Year with a legendary ski jump competition.
And since 2008 this event has been taking place at the new
Great Olympic Jump, Garmisch-Partenkirchen’s elegant
landmark.
Every year, on the first of January, about 15,000 spectators
transform the Olympic Stadium into a colorful sea of
flags while they cheer their favorite athletes on at the top of
their lungs. The legendary New Year’s ski jump competition
which is organized by Skiclub Partenkirchen also is
the Four Hills Tournament’s second stage and amongst
the biggest winter sports events outside of the World
Championships and the Winter Olympics. An incredible
100 million people watch the jumps from the Olympic
Jump at home in front of their television sets! It all began
in somewhat smaller proportions when, in 1922, the first
ski jump was built on which the first New Year’s ski jump
competition took place. In 1934 another, bigger jump was
built where the Olympic contests took place in 1936. And
in the 1950s the Springerfreunde (‘jumping friends’) from
Innsbruck and Partenkirchen had the idea of starting an
international series of contests – the Four Hills Tournament
was born!
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An airy monument
Advances in jumping technique and aerodynamics later
made the building of a new jump in Garmisch-
Partenkirchen necessary. After an architectural competition
in 2007 a futuristic eyecatcher became part of the
landscape: with its particular layout the new Olympic
jump imitates its surroundings and with the start-tower’s
overhang it seems nigh on weightless.