1971–72 Four Hills Tournament
# 1971–72 Four Hills Tournament

For the 20th edition of the Four Hills Tournament, the FIS deviated from the traditional order of events and started the tour in Innsbruck. The overall winner was Norwegian Ingolf Mork. In the previous year, Mork won three out of four events while only placing second overall.

Before the tournament started, the Japanese team already announced that they would only participate in the first three events before returning to Japan in order to prepare for the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo five weeks later. This decision ended up taking the tournee victory from Yukio Kasaya, who won all three events he participated in, and had a lead of 50.4 points to Mork. He would have been the first non-European tour winner. The preparation paid off: The Japanese took all three medals at the Olympic Normal hill event, Kasaya winning Gold.

## Participating nations and athletes

A Bulgarian jumper competed for the first time. The Japanese team did not sign up for the final event in Bischofshofen.

| Nation | Number of Athletes | Athletes |
| - | - | - |
| Germany | 11 | Klaus Boll, Peter Dubb, Günther Göllner, Alfred Grosche, Franz Keller, Walter Lampe, Ralph Pöhland, Sepp Schwinghammer, Alfred Winkler, Ernst Wursthorn, Bernd Zapf |
| Austria | 8 | Reinhold Bachler, Max Golser, Ernst Kröll, Hans Millonig, Franz Salhofer, Karl Schnabl, Walter Schwabl, Rudolf Wanner |
| Bulgaria | 1 | Ivan Sandov |
| Canada | 4 | Rick Gulyas, Ulf Kvendbo, Zdenek Mezl, Peter Wilson |
| Czechoslovakia | 9 | Bohumil Doležal, Rudolf Höhnl, Zbynek Hubac, Karel Kodejška, Jaromír Liďák, Josef Matouš, Jiří Raška, František Rydval, Leoš Škoda |
| East Germany | 8 | Dietmar Aschenbach, Hans-Georg Aschenbach, Henry Glaß, Christian Kiehl, Heinz Schmidt, Rainer Schmidt, Manfred Wolf, Heinz Wosipiwo |
| Finland | 4 | Tauno Käyhkö, Esko Rautionaho, Jouko Törmänen, Kari Ylianttila |
| France | 4 | Jacques Gaillard, Alain Macle, Gilbert Poirot, Yvan Richard |
| Hungary | 3 | László Gellér, Mihály Gellér, Antal Zámbó |
| Italy | 4 | Albino Bazana, Mario Ceccon, Gelindo Fogliaresi, Bruno Patti |
| Japan | 7 | Seiji Aochi, Takashi Fujisawa, Hiroshi Itagaki, Yukio Kasaya, Akitsugu Konno, Mineyuki Mashiko, Hisayoshi Sawada |
| Norway | 8 | Jo Inge Bjørnebye, Lars Grini, Ingolf Mork, Odd Hammernes, Frithjof Prydz, Petter Skarseth, Bent Tomtum, Bjørn Wirkola |
| Poland | 6 | Wojciech Fortuna, Stanisław Gąsienica Daniel, Slawomir Kardas, Adam Krzysztofiak, Tadeusz Pawlusiak, Ryszard Witke |
| Soviet Union | 7 | Aleksandr Ivannikov, Yury Kalinin, Gariy Napalkov, Vladimir Terichev, Sergey Yanin, Koba Zakadze, Anatoliy Zheglanov |
| Sweden | 4 | Tommy Eriksson, Eilerth Mähler, Andreas Lundquist, Rolf Nordgren |
| Switzerland | 5 | Eric Aubert, Hans Schmid, Walter Steiner, Ernst von Grünigen, Josef Zehnder |
| Yugoslavia | 7 | Marjan Mesec, Bogdan Norčič, Marian Prelovšek, Danilo Pudgar, Drago Pudgar, Peter Štefančič, Ludvik Zajc |

## Results

### Innsbruck

Bergiselschanze, Innsbruck 29 December 1971

Yukio Kasaya, who was in dominating form in the winter of 1971/72, became the first Non-European to win an event at the Four Hills Tournament. The Czechoslovakian and Norwegian teams disappointed with modest results for several tournament favourites, among them title holder Jiří Raška (12th), Ingolf Mork (22nd) and three-time competition winner Bjørn Wirkola (44th).

| Rank | Name | Points |
| - | - | - |
| 1 | Yukio Kasaya | 245.2 |
| 2 | Rainer Schmidt | 235.5 |
| 3 | Tauno Käyhkö | 229.9 |
| 4 | Henry Glaß | 225.4 |
| 5 | Yury Kalinin | 224.6 |
| 6 | Heinz Wosipiwo | 223.7 |
| 7 | Takashi Fujisawa | 222.7 |
| 8 | Gariy Napalkov | 222.4 |
| 9 | Heinz Schmidt | 220.0 |
| 9 | Anatoliy Zheglanov | 220.0 |

### Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Große Olympiaschanze, Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1 January 1972

| Rank | Name | Points |
| - | - | - |
| 1 | Yukio Kasaya | 242.9 |
| 2 | Tauno Käyhkö | 229.2 |
| 3 | Ingolf Mork | 227.5 |
| 4 | Takashi Fujisawa | 222.5 |
| 4 | Heinz Wosipiwo | 222.5 |
| 6 | Seiji Aochi | 222.2 |
| 7 | Hiroshi Itagaki | 221.4 |
| 8 | Bjørn Wirkola | 218.6 |
| 8 | Henry Glaß | 218.6 |
| 10 | Anatoliy Zheglanov | 218.3 |

### Oberstdorf

Schattenbergschanze, Oberstdorf 2 January 1972

| Rank | Name | Points |
| - | - | - |
| 1 | Yukio Kasaya | 247.9 |
| 2 | Ingolf Mork | 246.5 |
| 3 | Hans Schmid | 235.4 |
| 4 | Yury Kalinin | 233.6 |
| 5 | Esko Rautionaho | 232.0 |
| 6 | Hiroshi Itagaki | 231.3 |
| 7 | Rainer Schmidt | 229.7 |
| 8 | Gariy Napalkov | 228.3 |
| 9 | Günther Göllner | 226.8 |
| 10 | Hans-Georg Aschenbach | 226.5 |

### Bischofshofen

Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze, Bischofshofen 6 January 1972

Not taking Kasaya into account, who would not compete at Bischofshofen, the leading field was close together. Mork, who was leading Käyhkö with a margin of 1.2 points, saw his closest competitors struggle: Käyhkö (31st), R. Schmidt (56th), Kalinin (21st).

Veteran Zakadze finished in the Top Ten, precisely sixteen years after his first victory at a Four Hills event.

| Rank | Name | Points |
| - | - | - |
| 1 | Bjørn Wirkola | 233.6 |
| 2 | Jiří Raška | 233.0 |
| 3 | Zbynek Hubac | 229.5 |
| 4 | Ingolf Mork | 229.0 |
| 5 | Reinhold Bachler | 228.8 |
| 6 | Hans-Georg Aschenbach | 226.1 |
| 7 | Koba Zakadze | 225.7 |
| 7 | Walter Steiner | 225.7 |
| 9 | Henry Glaß | 225.0 |
| 10 | Rudolf Höhnl | 224.9 |

## Final ranking

| Rank | Name | Innsbruck | Garmisch-Partenkirchen | Oberstdorf | Bischofshofen | Points |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Ingolf Mork | 22nd | 3rd | 2nd | 4th | 914.6 |
| 2 | Henry Glaß | 4th | 9th | 13th | 9th | 893.6 |
| 3 | Tauno Käyhkö | 3rd | 2nd | 12th | 31st | 892.3 |
| 4 | Heinz Wosipiwo | 6th | 4th | 22nd | 11th | 888.8 |
| 5 | Yury Kalinin | 5th | 16th | 4th | 21st | 886.4 |
| 6 | Jiří Raška | 12th | 32nd | 25th | 2nd | 877.0 |
| 7 | Hans-Georg Aschenbach | 35th | 18th | 10th | 6th | 872.0 |
| 7 | Koba Zakadze | 19th | 13th | 20th | 7th | 872.0 |
| 9 | Gariy Napalkov | 8th | 26th | 8th | 32nd | 869.8 |
| 10 | Bjørn Wirkola | 44th | 8th | 27th | 1st | 869.3 |
