Garmisch-Partenkirchen on 1 January: much more than a tradition. GETTY IMAGES

As it has done every year since 1953, the Bavarian Alpine town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen hosted a new edition of the popular "New Year's Sky Jump" as part of the 2023-24 Four Hills Tournament of the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup.

On 1 January, families across Europe sit down to have dinner together on a special date when the Pope celebrates the first mass of the New Year at the Vatican, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performs its annual classical music concert at the Musikverein and ski jumpers compete in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. 

Especially in countries with little winter sports tradition, such as Spain, Portugal or Greece, people tend to think that this Bavarian event is just a tradition, a special New Year's event like the Miss or the concert, but it's much more than just that. 

A FIS Ski Jumping World Cup event, Garmisch-Partenkirchen is the second event of the Four Hills Tournament and is always held on 1 January, after the qualifiers on the last day before. Oberstdorf opens the tournament in the 'old year', followed by Garmisch, Innsbruck in Austria and the last of the four meetings, Bischofshofen in Austria. 

Anze Lanisek was the best in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. GETTY IMAGES
Anze Lanisek was the best in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. GETTY IMAGES

In this edition, the second stage was preceded by the victory of Germanys's Andreas Wellinger in Oberstdorf with 309.3 points, ahead of Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi (306.3) and Austria's Stefan Kraft (298.9), who currently leads the overall standings with 769 points.

Kraft had a bad New Year's Day in Garmisch, finishing sixth with 276.6 points and is now he is already more than 20 points behind Kobayashi and Wellinger. The German was third (291.4) and the Japanese second (292.6), while Austria's Michael Hayböck achieved the longest jump with 141.4 metres. The winner was the surprising Anze Lanisek from Slovenia with 295.8. 

This is the result of the Four Hills Tournament before the Innsbruck and Bischofshofen stages:

                                                          Points

1. Andreas Wellinger (Germany) 600,7
2. Ryoyu Kobayashi (Japan)          598,9
3. Stefan Kraft (Austria)                575,5
4. Manuel Fettner (Austria)          568,1
5. Jan Hörl (Austria)                       566,5
6. Anze Lanisek(Slovenia)            562,5
7. Marius Lindvik (Norway)          561,6
8. Michael Hayböck (Austria)       555,0
9. Peter Prevc (Slovenia)               554,6
10. Pius Paschke (Germany)        552,9