Ski jump supremo expects China to soar

China's women's ski jump supremo Heinz Kuttin says his charges are making sound progress and could even challenge for a podium place at the Beijing Olympics.

Kuttin, a winner of three Olympic medals for Austria in the early 1990s, was appointed as China's head coach last year and believes, with enough hard work, his squad can stun the world's ski jump powerhouses at the 2022 Games.

Kuttin is particularly hopeful about the chances of Chang Xinyue, China's first Olympic ski jumper who ranked 20th at last year's Pyeongchang Games.

Chang is currently sidelined due to injuries, but, speaking at an FIS World Cup meet in Klingenthal, Germany over the weekend, Kuttin said: "She (Chang) could return at the end of this season or next season. She should be ready to start in April next year to train with the team.

"Li Xueyao and Zhou Fangyu are both high-potential girls. The team can work together. I think we can fight for a medal with one of these ladies.

"Every athlete has the Olympic dream. I know how hard it is to achieve good results at Olympics. You have to establish big goals and work hard every day. But you also have to remain calm in your mind and sometimes rest."

Kuttin can't fault the squad's commitment to their physical conditioning, and is now focused on improving technical details.

"Ski jumping is not a sport that requires the highest level of physical training. You need good technique. It's all about speed, and if you make a tiny mistake you could fall to serious injury."

Li had a disappointing weekend at Klingenthal, ranking bottom of the 39-woman large-hill standings on Saturday－a poor result Kuttin put down to the windy weather in southern Germany.

"She was not lucky today. When she was competing, the weather condition was not good. You always need to have a chance no matter what kind of wind you are in," he said.

Li usually trains on so-called "normal hills" (90-100 meters). She placed 17th off a 97m hill at a World Cup meet in Rasnov, Romania, last season, and was 25th off a 140m hill in Lillehammer, Norway, earlier this month.

"It's not easy for Li. She came back for skiing in October and we were preparing for 100m hills. We should train more on big hills. She can reach top-30 or even top-20 when she performs well, but she is a bit unstable and had two or three falls last season," said Kuttin.

"The ski jump World Cup schedule is very intense and the team is not 100 percent ready for the new season. It'll take lots of energy to compete continuously and we have to get used to it. We have a better plan next year when we will be more stable and stronger."

Austrian Chiara Hoelzl claimed the women's individual title on Saturday.

The 22-year-old was crowned champion after jumping 141 meters to score 124.6 points. Slovenia's Ema Klinec was second (129m, 118.9 points), with Germany's Katharina Althaus third (131.5m, 118.6 points).

After three tournaments, Norwegian Maren Lundby leads the overall World Cup standings on 245 points, five ahead of Hoelzl. Klinec is third on 180 points.

Poland won the men's team competition with 968.7 points ahead of Austria and Japan.