Pius Paschke's build-up to the new ski jumping season has hit another snag. The 36-year-old German will sit out the national championships in Hinterzarten this weekend because of pain in his right knee, the German Ski Association (DSV) announced.
A precaution after consulting the team doctor
According to the DSV, Paschke felt mild discomfort in his right knee after a training session on Monday. After talking it through with team doctor Florian Porzig, he decided not to compete in the Black Forest. No serious injury is apparent at this stage. Paschke will take a one-week break from training before returning to a full workload, a step the federation said is primarily meant to stop the problem from getting worse.
The championships in Hinterzarten run from Friday to Sunday, with the men's individual ski jumping event on Friday evening and the team competitions on Saturday. National titles in Nordic combined are also being decided at the venue.
A summer already disrupted
This is the second notable setback of Paschke's preparation. In early July he fell during training on the Bergisel hill in Innsbruck and suffered a mild injury to his left elbow, which kept him out for several weeks. As a result he competed at only one stop of the Summer Grand Prix, finishing 35th and 28th in Courchevel — well short of his own standards.
The national championships would have offered valuable competition practice ahead of the winter. Instead, Paschke's last official chance to test himself before the World Cup is now the Summer Grand Prix finale in Klingenthal at the end of October, provided the knee settles down after his week off.
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Only two seasons ago Paschke was the jumper the German team was built around. In 2024-25 he finished fifth in the overall World Cup as the best-placed German and won several competitions; in total the late bloomer has six World Cup victories to his name. Last winter, however, fell short of expectations, and the signs from this autumn's preparation have done little to suggest a quick return to that level.
At 36, every training week matters. For an athlete who peaked late and whose results depend on a finely tuned jumping system, interruptions during the key phase of preparation are especially awkward. The DSV stresses that the break is preventive, but after the elbow crash in July the lost days are adding up.
The timeline is clear. The men's ski jumping World Cup opens in Lillehammer on November 21. Before then, the six-time World Cup winner needs not only to be pain-free but also to find the rhythm that has eluded him all summer, and the Grand Prix finale in Klingenthal will be his first real benchmark.
