David Zauner is in the middle of his first season as a skijumper. But he already achieved results others are not able to achieve during their whole career. The athlete from Eisenerz in Styria was fifth, sixth, ninth, he was among the best in the world numerous times. His worst result in the World Cup was a twelfth place - what a streak.

He didn't regret his step to change over from nordic combined, even if it took a couple of years until he finally made the decision. "It's goodd. The results are better than in nordic combined", told the 25-year-old, who didn't reckon with such good ranks. "I was hoping for it, but I didn't expect it. That I can do so well makes me very happy", Zauner said to Berkutschi in Willingen.  

Though about a change for a long time - never regreted it

Toni Innauer, sports director of the Austrian Ski Association, persuaded Zauner to change over to special jumping. The ambitious athlete did it "after some consideration. "You have to train a lot more as a nordic combined athlete because you have to train two disciplines", Zauner admits.

David Zauner Video-Interview »

Because totally different muscle groups are needed for cross country skiing than for skijumping, it takes some time for many of the former nordic combined skiiers to adjust to skijumping. Many don't make it to the world class of special skijumping. But Zauner made the almost impossible. "I kept training the endurance, but not that much. At the same time I worked on my anerobic strength", he explained. "That was working very well."

"Think only from competition to competition"

But the down-to-earth athlete who always lived in his home region and also wants to stay there, doesn't really trust his great shape. "You don't know what's happening next year. I prefer to think from competition to competition. Now I want to jump well in Willingen and then I want to do well at the Nordic Tournament". he said.

The career of David Zauner »

Many told Zauner not to change over to skijumping because most of the athletes never made it to the top. Zauner achieved better results in his first season in skijumping, than he did in nordic combined. There he was in the lead after the jumping portion 18 times, but his best result was a ninth place in Sapporo. We have seen better competitions for Zauner this season. And the fifth place in Klingenthal was for sure not the last we heard of the Austrian.

Fall in December

If he would not have suffered serious injuries when he fell at the Continental Cup in Rovaniemi in December he might have even made the Olympic team. "I had blood in the lung. Thank God it was diagnozed early enough", he remembers in an interview. But this fall does not handicap him anymore, it helped him "to overcome a mental block", like he said.

So David Zauner has to be reckoned with when it comes to the Top 10 in the future. "Hopefully I can also stand on the podium once", he said. Probably he won't have to wait too long.

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