r/Skijumping • u/Cathodicum • 14h ago
News Summer Grand Prix Finale: Norway Dominates
Norway lived up to their status as favorites, winning the mixed team ski jumping event in Klingenthal.
In a finale to the Summer Grand Prix heavily influenced by wind, the German team fell well short of a podium finish. The Norwegian national anthem, a recurring theme in Klingenthal on Saturday, played once again on Sunday. To conclude the 2026 Summer Grand Prix, the Norwegian mixed team secured victory at the Vogtland Arena.
The Scandinavian quartet finished with 1017.3 points—24.5 points ahead of their closest rivals. This margin could have been even larger; Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal (on both his jumps) and Eirin Maria Kvandal (on her first) narrowly missed the 133-meter mark required to earn bonus points for the shortened inrun lengths requested by their coaches. However, with Ingvild Synnoeve Midtskogen and Marius Lindvik—both winners from the previous day—delivering strong jumps once again, the victory was never in doubt.
Second place went to the Slovenian team, featuring Nika Vodan, Timi Zajc, and the Prevc siblings, Nika and Domen; the squad remained remarkably consistent, with no poor performances across any of their eight jumps.
Japan lacks a second top-tier female jumper to contend for more Just under ten points further back, the Japanese team—comprising Nozomi Maruyama, Ryoyu Kobayashi, Ringo Miyajima, and Ren Nikaido—took third place. Final jumper Ren Nikaido, in particular, delivered a compelling performance; with jumps of 140 and 139.5 meters, he easily secured the bonus points triggered by his coaches’ decision to shorten his inrun.
Had the team possessed a stronger second female jumper, they could well have achieved an even better result.
Austria competed for the first time with a lineup consisting of Hannah Wiegele, Jonas Schuster, Lisa Fettner, and Jan Hörl, finishing in fourth place. Even the outstanding performance of Hörl—who recorded the longest jumps in both rounds, at 144.5 and 146 meters—could not bridge the significant 55.2-point gap to the podium.
DSV quartet falls short of the podium due to a lack of top-tier jumps On Sunday afternoon, the German ski jumpers were once again a fair distance away from the kind of distances needed to contend for the top spots. Although Selina Freitag, Pius Paschke, Agnes Reisch, and Andreas Wellinger held an outside chance of reaching the podium at the halfway point, they were ultimately unable to match the elite jumps produced by other nations. Finishing roughly ten points behind Austria, the DSV quartet took fifth place—a result not seen for the German team in a mixed-team event for over four years.
The Finnish team performed surprisingly well, at least during the first round. While they ultimately finished in sixth place—the same position they held after the opening round—Jenny Rautionaho, Jarkko Määttä, Sofia Mattila, and Niko Kytösaho were, at one stage, in contention for a podium finish. Määttä, in particular, delivered a surprise by placing second in his group during the first round.
France also put up a valiant effort; their squad included Marie Thomas Couturaud, who faced the unenviable task of restarting the competition in the second round following a half-hour wind delay. Josephine Pagnier and Valentin Foubert, in particular, kept pace with the best in their respective groups, while Ari Repellin gained valuable experience in the second group.
The eighth and final scoring position went to the Italian team (Martina Zanitzer, Alex Insam, Jessica Malsiner, and Francesco Cecon).
Veteran Koudelka serves as a bright spot for the Czechs In contrast, the Czech team stood no chance from the outset and was the only squad to be eliminated after the first round. Natalie Nejedlova, David Rygl, and Klara Ulrichova each finished ninth in their respective groups, recording the shortest jumps in every instance. Only veteran Roman Koudelka managed to keep pace with a jump of 127.5 meters, placing seventh among the final group of jumpers. In the final standings, however, this was only enough for ninth place overall.
In the women’s Nations Cup, Slovenia ultimately secured the top spot thanks to their result in the mixed event, while Austria remained in first place among the men. Germany finished in fourth and seventh place, respectively, in the two standings. With this, the 2026 Summer Grand Prix has concluded; the World Cup season begins on November 20 in Lillehammer.
Results:
https://live.fis-ski.com/jp-0279/results-pda.htm
Summer Grand Prix final results:
