Team, Men

A team event had been conducted at the World Championships since 1982, won by East Germany in 1982, Norway in 1984, and West Germany in 1985 and 1987. The other medals at the Worlds had always been won by the Soviet Union and Finland. The event consisted of three athletes taking three jumps, with the best two in each round to count, followed by a 3 x 10 km cross-country relay started by the Gundersen Method, with the start order of the relay determined by the places in the ski jumping. After the jumps West Germany led by a 16.0 second margin over Austria, with Norway third, 2:46.0 back. In sixth place was Switzerland, well back at 4:52.0. In the relay, the Germans did not ski well, finishing eighth of 10 teams, but fortunately one team they outskied was Austria, which dropped back to a bronze medal. The ski relay was won by Switzerland, who posted 1-15:57.4, 2:16.1 ahead of East Germany, which had the second best relay time. But for Switzerland, they could only come tantalizingly close to West Germany, falling short by 3.4 seconds. Their anchorman was Fredy Glanzmann, who had the fastest leg of the day, but could not close the gap near the finish.