The 50th edition of the annual Four Hills Tournament marked the first time an athlete won all four events of the tournament. In the past, fifteen times a ski jumper won three out of four events, but never the 'Grand Slam'. Sven Hannawald's feat would not be repeated until 2017-18 by Kamil Stoch.

Format

At each of the four events, a qualification round was held. The 50 best jumpers qualified for the competition. The fifteen athletes leading the World Cup at the time qualified automatically. In case of an omitted qualification or a result that would normally result in elimination, they would instead qualify as 50th.

Unlike the procedure at normal World Cup events, the 50 qualified athletes were paired up for the first round of the final event, with the winner proceeding to the second round. The rounds start with the duel between #26 and #25 from the qualification round, followed by #27 vs #24, up to #50 vs #1. The five best duel losers, so-called 'Lucky Losers' also proceed.

For the tournament ranking, the total points earned from each jump are added together. The World Cup points collected during the four events are disregarded in this ranking.

Pre-Tournament World Cup Standings

At the time of the tournament, nine out of twenty-eight World Cup events were already held. Title holder Adam Małysz had won six of them, a fourth place being his worst finish of the season so far. Thus, he went into the tournament as favourite.

The standings were as follows:

Rank Name Points 1. Adam Małysz 810 2. Sven Hannawald 399 3. Stephan Hocke 356 4. Martin Höllwarth 317 5. Matti Hautamäki 311 6. Martin Schmitt 297 7. Andreas Widhölzl 278 8. Kazuyoshi Funaki 268 9. Andreas Goldberger 265 10. Risto Jussilainen 259

Participating nations and athletes

The number of jumpers a nation was allowed to nominate was dependent on previous results. At each event, a 'national group' of ten jumpers from the host country was added.

The defending champion was Adam Małysz. Six other competitors had also previously won the Four Hills tournament: Toni Nieminen in 1991-92, Andreas Goldberger in 1992-93 and 1994–95, Primož Peterka in 1996-97, Kazuyoshi Funaki in 1997-98, Janne Ahonen in 1998-99 and Andreas Widhölzl in 1999-00.

The following athletes were nominated:

Nation Starting Spots Number of Athletes Athletes 8+10 18 Sven Hannawald, Stephan Hocke, Martin Schmitt, Christof Duffner, Alexander Herr, Michael Uhrmann, Georg Spaeth, Dirk ElseNational Group: Frank Löffler, Jörg Ritzerfeld, Hansjörg Jäkle, Kai Bracht, Michael Neumayer, Roland Audenrieth, Maximilian Mechler, Michael Möllinger, Stefan Pieper, Leif Frey 8+10 18 Martin Höllwarth, Andreas Widhölzl, Andreas Goldberger, Martin Koch, Stefan Horngacher, Wolfgang Loitzl, Manuel Fettner, Stefan Thurnbichler (Garmisch-Partenkirchen onward)National Group: Markus Eigentler, Christian Nagiller, Reinhard Schwarzenberger, Stefan Kaiser, Bernhard Metzler, Bastian Kaltenböck, Andreas Kofler, Thomas Hörl, Gerhard Hofer, Balthasar Schneider 1 1 Georgi Zharkov 4 6 Jakub Janda, Michal Doležal, Jaroslav Sakala (until Garmisch-Partenkirchen), Jakub Jiroutek (until Garmisch-Partenkirchen), Jan Matura (Innsbruck onward), Jiří Parma (Innsbruck onward) 2 2 Jaan Jüris, Jouko Hein 8 8 Matti Hautamäki, Risto Jussilainen, Veli-Matti Lindström, Jussi Hautamäki, Toni Nieminen, Tami Kiuru, Janne Ahonen, Janne Ylijärvi 3 3 Nicolas Dessum, Emmanuel Chedal, Rémi Santiago 1 1 Kakhaber Tsakadze 1 1 Roberto Cecon 8 8 Kazuyoshi Funaki, Noriaki Kasai, Hideharu Miyahira, Masahiko Harada, Kazuya Yoshioka, Hiroki Yamada, Yasuhiro Shibata (Bischofshofen only), Teppei Takano (Bischofshofen only) 4 4 Stanislav Filimonov, Pawel Gaiduk, Maxim Polunin, Alexander Korobov (Innsbruck onward) 1 1 Dmitry Chvykov 1 1 Ingemar Mayr 5 5 Roar Ljøkelsøy, Tommy Ingebrigtsen, Anders Bardal, Olav Magne Dønnem, Henning Stensrud 5 5 Adam Małysz, Robert Mateja, Tomasz Pochwała, Tomisław Tajner, Wojciech Skupień 4 5 Valery Kobelev, Ildar Fatchullin, Anton Kalinitschenko, Alexander Belov 3 3 Martin Mesík, Dušan Oršula, Jan Zelencik (Oberstorf only) 6 6 Peter Žonta, Damjan Fras, Primož Peterka, Igor Medved, Robert Kranjec, Blaž Vrhovnik (Innsbruck onward) 4 4 Kim Hyun-ki, Kang Chil-ku, Choi Yong-jik, Choi Heung-chul(all until Innsbruck) 2 2 Kristoffer Jåfs, Johan Munters 4 4 Simon Ammann, Andreas Küttel, Sylvain Freiholz, Marco Steinauer (until Innsbruck) 1 1 Glynn Pedersen 2 2 Alan Alborn, Clint Jones

Results

Oberstorf Schattenbergschanze, Oberstorf 29-30 December 2001

Qualification winner: Andreas Widhölzl

Rank Name Points1 Sven Hannawald260.22 Martin Höllwarth252.23 Simon Ammann248.74 Matti Hautamäki248.15 Adam Małysz245.16 Andreas Widhölzl239.77 Risto Jussilainen239.38 Ildar Fatchullin237.39 Georg Spaeth232.710 Andreas Goldberger232.4

Garmisch-Partenkirchen Große Olympiaschanze, Garmisch-Partenkirchen 31 December 2001 - 1 January 2002

Qualification winner: Andreas Widhölzl

Rank Name Points1 Sven Hannawald264.52 Andreas Widhölzl262.83 Adam Małysz259.74 Hiroki Yamada259.15 Simon Ammann253.96 Matti Hautamäki252.07 Martin Höllwarth245.38 Martin Schmitt243.3 Valery Kobelev243.310 Martin Koch241.5

Innsbruck Bergiselschanze, Innsbruck 03-4 January 2002

With a comfortable lead from the first half of the tournament already to his name, Sven Hannawald won by over 20 points in Innsbruck, all but securing him the title. In the event's first round, Hannawald beat his direct duel opponent Martin Höllwarth by eight meters - Höllwarth's jump was still the second best of the entire round.

Qualification winner: Martin Höllwarth

Rank Name Points1 Sven Hannawald270.02 Adam Małysz247.03 Martin Höllwarth244.14 Matti Hautamäki240.55 Martin Schmitt238.36 Andreas Widhölzl237.97 Valery Kobelev234.98 Robert Kranjec234.09 Stephan Hocke228.310 Hideharu Miyahira227.9

Bischofshofen Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze, Bischofshofen 05-6 January 2002

With Hannawald's large lead after three events, the only hope for his rivals was a failure to proceed to the event's final round. Instead, the German yet again displayed the event's best jump in the first round and did not only secure tournament victory, but became the first athlete in the 50 years of Four Hills history to win all four events.

Qualification winner: Matti Hautamäki

Rank Name Points1 Sven Hannawald282.92 Matti Hautamäki280.43 Martin Höllwarth274.24 Robert Kranjec266.85 Martin Schmitt256.66 Alan Alborn256.27 Roberto Cecon247.88 Peter Žonta247.69 Adam Małysz241.010 Andreas Goldberger240.9

Final ranking

Rank Name Oberstorf Garmisch-Partenkirchen Innsbruck Bischofshofen Points1 Sven Hannawald1st1st1st1st1077.62 Matti Hautamäki4th6th4th2nd1021.03 Martin Höllwarth2nd7th3rd3rd1015.84 Adam Małysz5th3rd2nd9th992.85 Andreas Widhölzl6th2nd6th12th980.46 Simon Ammann3rd5th11th15th961.47 Martin Schmitt19th8th5th5th957.58 Risto Jussilainen7th20th15th13th923.69 Andreas Goldberger10th22nd17th10th918.510 Stephan Hocke21st11th9th17th914.8

References

External links FIS website Four Hills Tournament web site