Interview: "Happy to see fans in stands" at Beijing: ski jumping icon Hannawald

WARSAW, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- German ski jumping legend Sven Hannawald said he would be happy to see spectators in the stands at the Beijing Olympic Winter Games.

The Beijing 2022 organizers will invite spectators to watch the competitions instead of selling tickets for the Games due to safety reasons in the wake of the COVID-19 situation.

The three-time Olympic medalist believes that it is really a good news for the athletes that Chinese supporters will be in the stands, even as the Omicron variant has caused an extremely difficult situation around the world.

"I'm happy that the Chinese fans will be on the stands at the Winter Olympics as I have experienced jumping on the empty hill and it's not a good situation," said Hannawald.

"What always fascinated me is the fact that in every place we jumped, Japan or the United States, the fans were on the hill. I'm glad that people will be allowed on the stands during the Olympic competition as in the past. Unfortunately, I have experienced jumping with the empty stands and it wasn't cool," the 47-year-old told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The German also shared his predictions towards the Olympic competition in ski jumping.

"I think the Austrians will be main favorites to win gold. But it's difficult to predict the winner as I heard that there will be windy conditions. So every scenario is possible. We saw that Norway is close to Austria," the gold medalist from Salt Lake City analyzed.

"In the individual competition, it's very clear to me that Ryoyu Kobayashi is my favorite. Karl Geiger is also included in the game for medals because he is the one who can achieve a lot," Hannawald concluded.

Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games will be held from February 4 to 20 and the Paralympic Winter Games from March 4 to 13.