His big breakthrough came in the 1984/85 season. In December that year he won the World cup competition in
Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. He won six competitions in that season, but ended in 2nd place overall behind
Matti Nykänen. At the
1985 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in
Seefeld, he won silver medals both in the individual normal hill and the team large hill. He won the
FIS Ski Flying World Championships 1986 in
Bad Mitterndorf, the
1987 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in
Oberstdorf with gold in the individual large hill and bronze in the team large hill events. He won the ski jumping competition at the 1987
Holmenkollen ski festival. In the 1990/91 season and won his only World Cup overall and also won the team large hill gold medal at the
Nordic World Ski Championships 1991. He also won a silver medal in the team large hill at the
1992 Winter Olympics in
Albertville. Felder finished his World Cup career with victory on 29 March 1992 when he won the ski jumping competition in
Planica, Slovenia. After his retirement he became a manager in the Austrian Ski Federation (until March 19, 1997). Afterwards he was a manager in the German Ski Federation's Nordic Combined Team.
Ski flying On 9 March 1986, he tied the world ski jumping distance record with
Matti Nykänen at 191 metres (627 ft) at FIS Ski Flying World Championships on
Kulm hill in
Tauplitz/
Bad Mitterndorf,
Austria. On 13 March 1987, he touched the ground at world record distance at 192 metres (630 ft) at the World Cup official training on
Velikanka bratov Gorišek in
Planica,
Yugoslavia. On the next day he landed at 191 metres (627 ft) and only tied his personal best, as this jump was achieved in the repeated third round, after and because of the world record by
Piotr Fijas.
Coaching In 1995 Felder replaced Heinz Koch as the head coach of Austrian ski jumping team. He led
Reinhard Schwarzenberger to third place in
Four Hills Tournament, and
Andreas Goldberger to victory in the
1995-96 World Cup, and a gold medal during the
FIS Ski Flying World Championships 1996. In the following season he helped Goldberger win bronze medal during the
FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 1997 in Trondheim. After the end of the season Felder resigned. He became team's head coach once again in 2018, replacing
Heinz Kuttin. With Felder as his coach, Stefan Kraft won bronze in Seefeld in
2019, and won the
2019-20 World Cup. == World Cup ==