Team, Men1

Austria and Germany were favored, having been on the podium at the last two World Championships. Austria had won the 2003 title with Germany second, while Germany was second in 2005 to Norway, with Austria third. Norway did not have a team in the 2006 team event because several of their skiers were ill and could not start, leaving it open for Austria and Germany. The event started on 14 February but after half of the jumping was finished, it was postponed to the next day due to high winds. The next day, the Germans took the lead in the jumping, led by Georg Hettich, who had won the jumping portion of the individual event, and would do the same in the sprint a week later. Germany’s lead going into the relay was 10 seconds over Austria, 23 over Russia, and 35 over Finland. It was not enough. The German lead-off, Jens Gaiser, extended the lead to 37 seconds. But Austria chipped away and on the final leg, Mario Stecher overcame a 20-second margin to pull ahead and win the gold medal for his team by 15.3 seconds. Germany held on for the silver, with Finland coming up from fourth place to win the bronze.