1968–69 Four Hills Tournament

In 1969, Norwegian Bjørn Wirkola became the first person to win the Four Hills Tournament three times in a row. He was the fifth athlete to win the first three events, but yet again the 'Grand Slam' was denied, this time by Wirkola's closest rival Jiří Raška. It was a disappointing tournament for the two host nations with the best athlete from either being Reinhold Bachler, finishing 11th overall.

Four Hills Tournament
Venues	Schattenbergschanze, Bergiselschanze, Große Olympiaschanze, Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze
Location	Germany, Austria
Dates	29 December 1968 (1968-12-29) – 5 January 1969 (1969-01-05)
Competitors	76 from 14 nations
Medalists
Bjørn Wirkola   Jiří Raška   Zbyněk Hubač
← 1967-68 1969-70 →

For the first time in seven years, no non-European nations participated. The national groups of Germany and Austria only competed at the two events in their respective countries.

Nation	Number of Athletes	Athletes
Germany	5 (+5)	Franz Bisle, Günther Göllner, Walter Lampe, Henrik Ohlmayr, Oswald Schinze National Group: Alfred Grosche, Friedhelm Klapproth, Ralph Pöhland, Sepp Schwinghammer, Alfred Winkler
Austria	11 (+3)	Reinhold Bachler, Helmut Diess, Max Golser, Albert Haim, Ernst Kröll, Sepp Lichtenegger, Franz Salhofer, Willi Schuster, Erich Schwabl, Walter Schwabl, Janko Zwitter National Group: Heinz Jölly, Franz Kuchlbacher, Ernst Wimmer
Czechoslovakia	7	Ladislav Divila, Rudolf Höhnl, Zbyněk Hubač, Karel Kodejška, Jan Matouš, Jiří Raška, František Rydval
East Germany	7	Bernd Karwofski, Horst Queck, Manfred Queck, Heinz Schmidt, Rainer Schmidt, Wilfried Schüller, Clemens Walter
Finland	3	Keijo Leiho, Topi Mattila, Juhani Ruotsalainen
France	4	Jannie Arnould, Nicolas Gaide, Alain Macle, Gilbert Poirot
Hungary	3	László Gellér, Mihály Gellér, János Taffener
Italy	3	Giacomo Aimoni, Albino Bazana, Mario Ceccon
Norway	3	Lars Grini, Knut Kongsgård, Jan Olaf Roaldset, Bent Tomtum, Bjørn Wirkola
Poland	2	Andrej Sztolf, Ryszard Witke
Soviet Union	5	Vladimir Belousov, Aleksandr Ivannikov, Gariy Napalkov, Wiezeslav Zerbakov, Anatoliy Zheglanov
Sweden	3	Torbjörn Hedberg, Thord Karlsson, Olle Martinsson
Switzerland	4	Richard Pfiffner, Hans Schmid, Heribert Schmid, Urs Schönl, Sepp Zehnder
Yugoslavia	6	Vinko Bogataj, Branko Dolhar, Janez Jurman, Marjan Mesec, Peter Štefančič, Ludvik Zajc

Schattenbergschanze, Oberstdorf
29 December 1968^[1]

Rank	Name	Points
1	Bjørn Wirkola	218.7
2	Jiří Raška	215.7
3	Josef Matouš	210.5
4	Heinz Schmidt	210.1
5	Manfred Queck	209.9
6	Rudolf Höhnl	205.4
7	Ladislav Divila	199.9
8	Vladimir Belousov	199.7
9	Reinhold Bachler	199.3
	Ludvik Zajc	199.3

Große Olympiaschanze, Garmisch-Partenkirchen
1 January 1969^[2]

Rank	Name	Points
1	Bjørn Wirkola	241.2
2	Anatoliy Zheglanov	235.4
3	František Rydval	233.8
4	Vladimir Belousov	233.6
5	Heinz Schmidt	232.3
6	Zbyněk Hubač	228.4
7	Ladislav Divila	226.5
8	Gariy Napalkov	222.1
9	Horst Queck	221.8
10	Lars Grini	221.2

Bergiselschanze, Innsbruck
4 December 1969^[3]

Rank	Name	Points
1	Bjørn Wirkola	236.3
2	Jiří Raška	235.5
3	Anatoliy Zheglanov	225.9
4	Lars Grini	222.6
5	Zbyněk Hubač	219.9
6	Rudolf Höhnl	214.1
7	František Rydval	212.4
8	Horst Queck	212.2
9	Gariy Napalkov	210.8
10	Heinz Schmidt	209.7

Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze, Bischofshofen
5 January 1969^[4]

Rank	Name	Points
1	Jiří Raška	234.7
2	Bjørn Wirkola	228.3
3	Lars Grini	222.6
4	Anatoliy Zheglanov	219.2
5	Zbyněk Hubač	218.8
6	Wiezeslav Zerbakov	211.4
7	Ladislav Divila	211.0
8	František Rydval	209.9
9	Vladimir Belousov	208.1
10	Bent Tomtum	207.0

Rank	Name	Oberstdorf	Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Innsbruck	Bischofshofen	Points
1	Bjørn Wirkola	1st	1st	1st	2nd	924.5
2	Jiří Raška	2nd	21st	2nd	1st	900.5
3	Zbyněk Hubač	11th	6th	5th	5th	866.0
4	Anatoliy Zheglanov	23rd	2nd	3rd	4th	862.0
5	František Rydval	14th	3rd	7th	8th	848.2
6	Vladimir Belousov	8th	4th	19th	9th	839.3
7	Rudolf Höhnl	6th	15th	6th	14th	838.3
8	Heinz Schmidt	4th	5th	10th	30th	830.8
9	Lars Grini	59th	10th	4th	3rd	812.5
10	Ladislav Divila	7th	7th	41st	7th	810.8

• FIS website
• Four Hills Tournament web site