OREANDA-NEWS. June 14, 2012. OMV CEO, Gerhard Roiss, opened the first international ski jump in Romania, thereby restoring part of the country’s sporting history. Rasnov is a small town with 17,000 inhabitants in the Romanian region of Transylvania. The first ski competitions in the history of Transylvania and Romania took place in Rasnov 100 years ago. Since then, the old jump had fallen into disrepair but it has now been rebuilt by OMV in cooperation with the Romanian Ski Association and the community of Rasnov. The skiing complex now has three ski jumps (K 15, K 35 and K 64 meters; HS 71).

The Romanian Carpathian Mountains form one of the weakest economic regions in the country. Since 2007, OMV has invested around EUR 1 mn a year in the region, adding value to the local economy. With the completion of the ski jumps, OMV is laying the foundations for the economic and emotional revival of the town of Rasnov. Furthermore, the Group wants to create new prospects for young people and deliver new opportunities for them in the area. OMV CEO, Gerhard Roiss, explains: “When we first started, almost no one believed that it would be possible to implement a project of this kind in Romania. It gives me great pride, therefore, to say that we have succeeded in delivering a tremendous boost to ski jumping in Romania with the addition of the new ski jumps. This is not only important for the sport itself; but also to the economic development of the region and it creates new prospects for children and young people. Our next step is to link sports training with the school curriculum based on the example of the Stams Ski Academy. The goal is to give young athletes a well-founded and professional education in their own country. I would particularly like to thank Professor Paul Ganzenhuber, who has pioneered the model for combined sports training and schooling in Austria. He has established this pioneering model in Romania following painstaking work – an achievement that cannot be overestimated.”