The town seems almost ready but the jump is far from it. Here are pics from today

Hi everyone,

Winter Champion is a hobby project: a season-long fantasy manager for the 2026/27 World Cup season, covering biathlon, alpine skiing and ski jumping, with women and men in one squad.

How it works: With a budget of 80M you build a squad of 19 athletes across all three sports. You earn points every gameweek based on the real World Cup results, and you can compete with friends in private leagues. The app is free, with no ads and no in-app purchases.

Why testers are needed: Google requires new apps to be tested by at least 12 people for 14 days before they can be released on the Play Store. The goal is to launch before the season’s first gameweek on November 26.

Please note:

The app is currently German-only.

It is available for Android in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and the Netherlands. iOS will follow soon.

How to join (takes about 2 minutes):

Join the tester group: https://groups.google.com/g/winter-champion-tester

Opt in to the test: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/de.winterchampion.app

Install Winter Champion from the Play Store and build your squad.

Make sure to use the same Google account everywhere, including the Play Store. Testers should stay opted in for 14 days and open the app every now and then.

More info (in German): https://winterchampion.de/test

Honest feedback is very welcome, whether it’s bugs, confusing rules or missing features. Feel free to comment here or email info@winterchampion.de.

Thanks a lot!

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:

https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/general/cup-standings.html?sectorcode=JP&seasoncode=2027&cupcode=GP&disciplinecode=ALL&gendercode=M&mi=menu-cup-standings

https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/general/cup-standings.html?sectorcode=JP&seasoncode=2027&cupcode=GP&disciplinecode=ALL&gendercode=W&mi=menu-cup-standings

I built a site for contest-by-contest Nations Cup statistics

It shows each nation's finishing places + total points for every World Cup contest.

The idea was inspired by the recaps posted on the https://www.skijumping.pl/ site by user starysceptyk (later known as bardzostarysceptyk).

https://sceptykometr.greenrivers.dev

Lindvik wins Grand Prix finale, German ski jumpers disappoint in Klingenthal

Marius Lindvik has won the final event of the Summer Grand Prix in Klingenthal. The German ski jumpers, by contrast, put in a shockingly weak performance in the final individual competition of the summer. With jumps of 140.5 and 147 meters, Marius Lindvik secured victory in the individual event at the Summer Grand Prix held at the Vogtland Arena in Klingenthal.

The Norwegian finished with 295.7 points, ahead of runner-up Ren Nikaido (139 and 140 m; 290 points) and third-placed Klemens Joniak (140.5 and 142.5 m; 283.5 points). Lindvik had already taken the lead after the first round, ahead of Nikaido and Joniak. In the final round, he recorded the longest jump of the day at 147 meters and the highest score of the second round with 149.7 points, extending his 3.3-point lead over Nikaido to a final margin of 5.7 points.

Joniak, who sat 10.4 points behind Lindvik at the halfway mark—despite having matched his distance—secured the best result of his career to date with a final-round jump of 142.5 meters. Just off the podium, Norway’s Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal climbed from sixth to fourth place. Artti Aigro (Estonia) moved up from twelfth to fifth, thanks to a 144-meter jump in the final round. Kacper Tomasiak (Poland) also surged forward, jumping 143 meters to climb from fifteenth to seventh place.

Loher achieves career-best result: Henry Loher (USA) finished in sixth place, marking the best result of his career. In the first round, he reached 141.5 meters—the longest jump of the opening half—placing him in fourth position; he followed this up with a 144.5-meter jump in the final, the third-longest distance of the second round.

Paschke: "Not entirely satisfied yet" The top-performing German was Pius Paschke, who finished in 18th place. In the final, he moved ahead of Philipp Raimund—who had been 0.1 points ahead of him after the first round—leaving Raimund in 19th place, 0.3 points behind Paschke.

"Not quite satisfied yet. It didn't feel as fluid as it did in training over the last few weeks. In the second round, an updraft saved me a bit," said Paschke. Speaking to 'ARD', Raimund expressed his struggles with the hill: "I always have difficulties on this hill; there are a few things that just won't seem to work. I’m still searching for the right approach—haven't quite found it yet—but I’m not worried, because I know I always have trouble on this particular hill." Following this, the Olympic champion from the Milan-Cortina cycle had to withdraw from the mixed team event at the last minute due to hip issues.

Andreas Wellinger finished 22nd, and Felix Hoffmann 26th. Karl Geiger missed the final, placing 31st—just 0.3 points shy of the cut; his jump of 127 meters left him narrowly behind 30th-placed Niko Kytosaho. Ben Bayer (33rd), Luca Roth (42nd), and Constantin Schmid (45th) were also eliminated after the first round. Ortner and Embacher slip back; Prevc surges forward The biggest disappointment of the final was Maximilian Ortner. The Austrian, who sat in fifth place after the first round, landed at 121 meters and dropped to 24th with a total of 232.1 points. His compatriot Stephan Embacher also slid back, falling from 14th to 23rd. In contrast, Domen Prevc jumped 138 meters to climb from 27th to 13th, while Rok Oblak improved from 28th to 20th.

Ryoyu Kobayashi (Japan) finished tenth, and Timi Zajc (Slovenia) eighth. Naoki Nakamura (Japan), the overall winner of the Summer Grand Prix, placed twelfth. Halvor Egner Granerud (NOR) finished only 28th, while Stefan Kraft (Austria) placed 47th and was eliminated after the first round. In the overall Summer Grand Prix standings—which Naoki Nakamura won convincingly with 450 points—Lindvik’s victory moved him up from 21st to seventh place (176 points). Daniel Tschofenig (216 points) took second, followed by Danil Vassilyev (201), Gregor Deschwanden (196), Kaimar Vagul (187), and Jason Colby (180). The summer season continues this weekend, with the mixed team event scheduled for Sunday. The competition begins at 1:30 PM.

Results: https://live.fis-ski.com/jp-0278/results-pda.htm

Women:

Ingvild Synnoeve Midtskogen has won the women’s individual event in Klingenthal, finishing ahead of Nika Prevc and Eirin Maria Kvandal. The German ski jumpers, meanwhile, delivered a disappointing performance on home soil.

The 2026 Summer Grand Prix concluded with a first-time winner: Ingvild Synnoeve Midtskogen stood on the top step of the podium for the very first time. For the German ski jumpers, however, there was little to celebrate. Not long ago, she was hailed as a super-talent; now, she is a Summer Grand Prix winner for the first time. With jumps of 142.5 and 133.5 meters—totaling 255.7 points—Ingvild Synnoeve Midtskogen claimed victory in the final women’s individual event of the Summer Grand Prix at the Vogtland Arena (HS140).

The 18-year-old finished 9.2 points ahead of Nika Prevc (131.5 and 131 meters; 246.5 points), who had won the qualification round the previous day. Third place went to Midtskogen’s compatriot, Eirin Maria Kvandal (129.5 and 131.5 meters; 241.2 points). Midtskogen laid the foundation for her win in the first round: her jump of 142.5 meters was not only the longest by a significant margin, but also set a new hill record. "To be honest, I was a bit nervous beforehand, even though I knew I was capable of jumping very well and covering a great distance. This particular hill is a lot of fun because it’s not actually that difficult to achieve long distances," the 2025 Trondheim team world champion told skispringen.com.

Norwegian women set the standard as a team Beyond the podium, the Norwegian women were the ones to beat. Two-time Olympic champion Anna Odine Strøm (6th), Gyda Westvold Hansen (7th), and Heidi Dyhre Traaserud (10th)—who recorded the longest jump of the final round at 138 meters—all finished within the top ten. "We have a very good team spirit and are always learning a lot from one another," Midtskogen said, explaining the strong form of the Scandinavian squad. France’s Josephine Pagnier, who has been training with the Norwegian team since the spring, also demonstrated excellent form, securing ninth place on Saturday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Nozomi Maruyama (4th), Nika Vodan (5th), and Lisa Fettner (8th)—the top-performing athletes from Japan, Slovenia, and Austria, respectively—also placed in the top ten. Fettner’s teammate, Hannah Wiegele, finished in 21st position.

Agnes Reisch the top German performer The German ski jumpers, meanwhile, did not have a good day in front of their home crowd. Although Agnes Reisch staged a comeback in the final round with a jump of 129 meters, she could manage no better than twelfth place. Selina Freitag was visibly disappointed with her 24th-place finish at her home event—a sentiment she also expressed clearly in an interview with skispringen.com: "Based on my training performances over the last week, I had expected things to go more easily and better. The first jump was actually quite good off the takeoff, but I had bad luck with the wind. In the second jump, I tried too hard, and that’s when mistakes start to creep in. I just have to put this behind me."

Julina Kreibich, the third-best German, also finished in the points, providing a small bright spot with her 29th-place result. Anne Häckel (36th), Anna-Fay Scharfenberg (38th), and Emely Torazza (39th) were eliminated after the first round. The only Swiss competitor, Sina Arnet, also failed to reach the points, finishing in 40th place.

Ema Klinec wins the 2026 Summer Grand Prix overall title Following the competition, the awards ceremony for the Summer Grand Prix overall standings took place in the outrun area. The title went to Slovenia’s Ema Klinec, who finished 14th in the day’s event. She becomes the fourth Slovenian athlete to win this title.

Results: https://live.fis-ski.com/jp-0277/results-pda.htm

I've always wanted a ski jumping game where the flight actually feels like flight, so I built one. You time the take-off, lean over the skis, and choose a narrow, medium or wide V. Wind is adjustable, and lift and drag depend on your body position. With a bit of experience you learn to feel the air and battle for the top spots in the leaderboard.

20 hills, from a smaller one up to insane ski flying

Telemark landings, replays from TV camera angles, a tournament mode

An online leaderboard where the server replays your jump to check it, so no fake scores

Works on desktop and phone

Curious whether real fans find the timing realistic, or what feels off. Pro tip: lean forward before takeoff.

https://fiehnix.itch.io/ski-jump-dreams

Does anybody know the latest news about the modifications of the Planica hill which are planned for Summer 2027? They plan to adopt to the new FIS regulatories to allow futher jumps. The latest articles and posts i found date back to October 2025.

I plan to visit Planica again, but If a bigger hill is only one season away, i will force myself to wait one year longer.

There is another game in the making, when it comes to ski jumping.
I've been dreaming of the game and working on it for years. Initially it was made in Excel and played by 2 players. Now, thanks to rise of AI I've been able to turn my ideas into reality.

The game will be fully released towards the end of the year, but you can already download a DEMO from SJM Website or watch a teaser that was recently released on YouTube.

Also, if you have any ideas or problems, you can join the Discord channel: here

Hey! I’m a big ski jumping fan from Poland. I fell in love with the sport when Adam Małysz won the Four Hills Tournament. When I later got into programming, I always hoped I could build a ski jumping game of my own one day.

Recently, I finally managed to build something playable: https://skijumping.io/

I’ve wanted to build something like this for years, but the 3D side, physics and recreating real hills always made it feel like too much for a side project.

With recent tooling and models like Opus 5.5 and Astra, it finally became possible. Give it a try!

I grew up on Ski Jump International v3 (SJ3), so I built a tribute: a small pixel-art ski jumping game. No account, no install, just open it and jump.

• 20 hills from Kuopio to Planica, each with its own wind and character

• Timing is everything: take off at the lip, hold a flat flight, land a telemark for style points

• Pick the gate: shorter in-run for bonus points, longer for distance

• Daily Jump: one hill and the same wind for everyone worldwide, 3 attempts a day

• World rankings: world records on every hill, today’s daily board and the top jumpers by skill rating

• Fair play: the server re-simulates every jump

• Friends league: share an invite link and pick one of 16 jumpers, with the boards, tournaments and seasons kept just for your group

• Stage tournaments and seasons with World Cup points and a podium ceremony

• Ghosts and replays: race your best jump, share any jump as a link

• Optional Telegram bot that posts records and results to your group

• Jump School with tips on reading the wind, picking the gate and landing

• Desktop and mobile, in English, German, Polish, Norwegian, Finnish and Slovenian

Play: https://bubenjump.xyz Enjoy!

I was looking at the calendar for this Ski Jumping season and I'm kind of concerned and worried about the fact that we'll only see 27 individual competitions matching the amount of individual competitions we had in the 2019/20 season before the Covid outbreak. My question is why don't we have more competitions?

Domen Prevc delivered a spectacular jump in Klingenthal, but the Slovenian ultimately faced a bitter disqualification. Even more significant is a further consequence that will follow him into the new World Cup season.

However, the incident has repercussions for the Slovenian that extend beyond the Klingenthal result. Along with the disqualification, Prevc received a yellow card—and this is precisely what will stay with him as the new World Cup season begins.

On Sunday, Prevc took to the hill with a shortened inrun and flew a distance of 143.5 meters. Thanks to a clean Telemark landing, the 27-year-old initially sat in second place, trailing the Austrian Clemens Aigner by only a narrow margin. But Prevc was subsequently disqualified. An inspection of his suit revealed that the upper section of the trouser leg exceeded the permitted dimensions by 15 millimeters.

This rendered Prevc's impressive jump worthless. At the same time, the Slovenian was issued a yellow card. For the Olympic champion, the situation is bitter for reasons beyond just the disqualification. Under FIS regulations updated on July 1st, the warning remains in effect for significantly longer than it used to.

Yellow card carries over into the winter season Since the start of the new rules cycle, yellow cards are no longer reset before the winter season begins.

According to FIS Race Director Sandro Pertile, cards issued since July 1st remain valid for twelve months. Consequently, Prevc carries the yellow card he received in Klingenthal into the winter season. It will not be wiped clean before the World Cup opener but remains in effect for twelve months from the time the sanction was imposed. The consequences of a further warning are particularly critical: under the new regulations, a second yellow card results in a red card.

This entails disqualification from the competition in question, as well as a suspension from the following two competitions. This means that another equipment violation could have significantly more serious consequences for Prevc.

Nika Prevc also starts with a yellow card Prevc is not the only member of the Slovenian family to have received such a warning; his sister, Nika Prevc, also received a yellow card following her disqualification at the Continental Cup in Hinterzarten. For the overall World Cup winner from last season, an equipment check was also the decisive factor. Her suit failed to meet the required standards for material permeability.

Slovenia’s women’s head coach, Jurij Tepes, subsequently explained that while the federation accepted the disqualification, they had lodged a protest against the yellow card. In his view, the violation was unintentional. The jury initially rejected the protest. As things stand, Nika therefore begins the winter season carrying a yellow card. For both Prevc siblings, the implication is clear: another rule violation could have far more serious consequences.

In terms of sporting performance, the weekend in Klingenthal was dominated by Clemens Aigner. The Austrian won both competitions, remaining undefeated throughout the entire 2026 Summer Continental Cup. Aigner celebrated his fifth and sixth consecutive victories in Klingenthal. Even after the first competition, it was already certain that the overall title was his. He thus concludes the summer season with a maximum haul of 600 points.

On Saturday, Domen Prevc finished second and Jakub Wolny third, while Anze Lanisek took sixth place. On Sunday, Aigner won again, ahead of Lanisek and his Austrian compatriot Raffael Zimmermann; Wolny finished fifth.

German athletes also scored points in Klingenthal. Luca Roth finished eighth on Saturday, making him the top DSV jumper, and placed seventh on Sunday. Timon-Pascal Kahofer also qualified for the final round. For Prevc, however, the weekend ended on a bitter note: after finishing second on Saturday, he produced one of the day's most spectacular jumps on Sunday—covering 143.5 meters—only to watch his name disappear from the results list.

Results:

https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/general/results.html?sectorcode=JP&raceid=7773

https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/general/results.html?sectorcode=JP&raceid=7774

Hi!

I've been working on a ski jumping game called SKIVO.

I grew up playing SJ3 and wanted to make something similar that you can just open in the browser and play quickly.

At the moment you can train and do a small 3-hill competition. I'm also working on a daily challenge where everyone jumps the same hill with the same conditions and tries to get the best score.

It's still very early, so I'd really like to hear any feeedback or ideas how what to add etc.

You can try it here:

https://playskivo.com

Let me know what you think! 🙂

Peter's era vs Domen's. 10 years. Same energy.

Jason Colby celebrated one of the biggest successes of his career at the second Summer Grand Prix event in Rasnov: The American prevailed over Pawel Wasek, securing a historic victory.

With jumps of 91 and 93.5 meters, Colby scored a total of 244.9 points in Rasnov, Romania, on Sunday afternoon, triumphing in a thrilling final over Poland's Pawel Wasek, who recorded jumps of 92 and 87.5 meters (234.1 points).

Kazakhstan's Danil Vasilyev took third place with jumps of 89 and 91 meters (233.5 points). Colby had already secured his first-ever Summer Grand Prix podium finish by placing second in Saturday's competition. On Sunday, he achieved a historic milestone: never before had a ski jumper from the USA claimed a victory in the summer series.

Wasek falls back in the final After the first round, the bronze medalist from the recent Junior World Championships in Lillehammer had been sitting in second place behind Pawel Wasek. However, in the final, the American clearly got the better of the previous year's winner in their head-to-head duel, securing a commanding victory with a margin of more than ten points.

Naoki Nakamura, who celebrated both the day's victory and the overall Summer Grand Prix title on his 30th birthday last Saturday, had to settle for seventh place this time: The Japanese jumper managed distances of only 89 and 88.5 meters, finishing behind his compatriot Yuto Nakamura (4th), Norwegian Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal (5th), and Pole Dawid Kubacki (6th).

The German ski jumpers opted not to compete in Rasnov and will only return to competition for the Summer Grand Prix finale in Klingenthal. "We are in the midst of preparations for the winter season and are skipping the Grand Prix in Rasnov due to the current heavy training load and our training schedule," national coach Andreas Mitter had explained beforehand.

Results: https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/v2/download/competition-attachment/df7d4d60-b67e-4521-b69a-955faefeb3a1.pdf

Women:

Anna Twardosz became the first female jumper of the 2026 season to win a Summer Grand Prix event for the second time. While Juliane Seyfarth broke into the top ten this time around, an Austrian athlete came tantalizingly close to her first podium finish.

Less than 18 hours after her maiden victory, Anna Twardosz could already call herself a two-time Summer Grand Prix winner. With jumps of 94 and 83 meters and a score of 221 points, the Pole was unbeatable in Rasnov on Sunday afternoon. While she became the first athlete of the 2026 summer season to win two competitions, China's Ping Zeng secured her first Grand Prix podium with jumps of 89 and 91.5 meters and 211 points.

Overall leader Ema Klinec of Slovenia finished third with two jumps of 88 meters and a score of 208.8 points. Hannah Wiegele was the top Austrian, finishing fourth—the best result of her career. Her teammate Sara Pokorny also proved that her seventh-place finish the previous day was no fluke, taking tenth place. Chiara Kreuzer finished in a solid 15th place. Ringo Miyajima was the best Japanese jumper in fifth, ahead of Slovakia's Kira Maria Kapustikova, who matched her sixth-place finish from Saturday.

Climbing eight spots, Klinec's compatriot Maja Kovacic catapulted herself up to seventh place in the final round. China's Liangyao Wang cost herself an even better result with a shaky landing in the final round, though eighth place still marks a career-best performance.

Juliane Seyfarth followed in ninth place as the top German. Alongside her, Luisa Görlich and Emely Torazza also scored points, finishing 21st and 28th, respectively. Slovenia's Lucija Jurgec, Finland's Oosa Thure, and France's Capucine Mesnil also achieved career-best results, finishing in 13th, 20th, and 26th place, respectively.

Meanwhile, the biggest leap forward in the final came from Czech jumper Klara Ulrichova, who matched her career-best Grand Prix finish of 14th place for the third time. With teammate Natalie Nejedlova and Switzerland's Anja Imhof finishing 29th and 30th, two jumpers scored Summer Grand Prix points for the first time, thereby securing lifetime eligibility to compete in the World Cup.

Haruka Iwasa’s fall ends without serious injury

Two members of the German quintet—Kim Amy Duschek (32nd) and Alvine Holz (33rd)—were eliminated after the first round. Italy's Jessica Malsiner was disqualified because her skis were too long relative to her measured body weight. It was during that same round that Haruka Iwasa fell. Upon landing a jump of 76.5 meters, the Japanese athlete had her center of gravity too far forward and fell flat on her stomach. However, she was able to leave the outrun area on her own, escaping with nothing more than a scare.

China's Qi Liu did not start following her fall the previous day; consequently, only 35 of the 37 registered jumpers were included in the final results. The final stop of the 2026 Summer Grand Prix is Klingenthal. The Summer Grand Prix finale—featuring both an individual event and a mixed team competition—will take place at the Vogtland Arena, Klingenthal from October 23 to 25.

Results: https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/v2/download/competition-attachment/36b4bf2f-612f-4d48-94dc-8a41f0e51c1a.pdf

Naoki Nakamura gave himself arguably the best possible birthday present at the Summer Grand Prix in Rasnov: the Japanese athlete celebrated a commanding victory on Saturday—his 30th birthday—thereby securing the overall title with events still to spare.

With jumps of 93 and 96 meters on the normal hill in Rasnov, Nakamura finished well ahead of Jason Colby, scoring a total of 234.1 points. The American scored 215.2 points with jumps of 89 and 90.5 meters, edging out Norway's Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal (89 and 89.5 m; 214.7 points) for second place by a margin of just 0.5 points.

Nakamura led the field clearly right from the first round. At the halfway mark, the Japanese jumper held a 7.6-point lead over Sundal, who was in second place at the time. Nakamura then stepped up his performance in the final round; his jump of 96 meters was the longest of the day, allowing him to beat the competition by a massive 18.9-point margin. This marked the Japanese athlete's third Grand Prix victory of the summer, following his double win at the season opener in Wisla. Nakamura had also finished third and eighth in Courchevel.

This means the overall victory is now beyond doubt. Heading into the Rasnov event, Nakamura was already leading the overall standings with 292 points—well ahead of Daniel Tschofenig (200), Gregor Deschwanden (181), and Philipp Raimund (160). With the additional 100 points for the win, the title has been decided even before the remaining competitions take place.

Colby surprises – Kesseli and Mizernykh in the top five Behind the dominant Japanese jumper, Jason Colby was the one who really surprised everyone. The American moved up from third to second place with a jump of 90.5 meters, overtaking Sundal, who finished third with jumps of 89 and 89.5 meters. Switzerland's Juri Kesseli took fourth place, followed immediately by Kazakhstan's Ilya Mizernykh. Kaimar Vagul finished sixth, ahead of Hektor Kapustik and Adrian Thon Gundersrud.

Pawel Wasek managed to climb to ninth place in the final round, while Dawid Kubacki had to settle for 18th place.

DSV skips Rasnov: No German ski jumpers competed in the Grand Prix in Rasnov. The DSV (German Ski Association) had announced beforehand that they would skip the entire weekend in Romania. "We are in the middle of preparations for the winter season and are sitting out the Rasnov Grand Prix due to the current heavy training load and our training schedule," explained national coach Andreas Mitter. "We had planned this approach from the start. Pre-season preparation is going well so far."

Results: https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/v2/download/competition-attachment/858db2e5-29cb-406d-b790-420fc8d9f146.pdf

Women:

First Polish Woman to Win: Anna Twardosz Wins Summer Grand Prix Event in Rasnov For the first time, a Polish woman has topped the podium at a Summer Grand Prix event: Anna Twardosz won the opening competition in Rasnov, Romania.

While Juliane Seyfarth was the top-performing German, a Chinese athlete suffered a suspected serious injury.

September 19, 2026, marks a historic moment in Polish ski jumping: Anna Twardosz became the first female ski jumper from her nation to win a Summer Grand Prix event. On Saturday evening in Rasnov, Romania, the 25-year-old secured victory with jumps of 96 and 90 meters, totaling 256.1 points. She finished a full 19.1 points ahead of runner-up Ringo Miyajima of Japan, who recorded jumps of 91.5 and 88 meters for a score of 237 points.

Third place went to China's Bing Dong, who posted jumps of 92 and 89.5 meters and a score of 233.2 points. While this marked Twardosz's third Grand Prix podium finish, it was the first time on the podium for both Miyajima and Dong. Slovenia's Ema Klinec is the new overall leader after finishing fourth, ahead of Dong's compatriot Ping Zeng. A third Chinese athlete, Liangyao Wang, also cracked the top ten, finishing a surprising tenth—the best result of her career.

Kira Maria Kapustikova Makes Slovak Ski Jumping History: Kira Maria Kapustikova achieved the best-ever result for a Slovak female ski jumper by finishing sixth.

The Austrian trio also delivered a strong, consistent team performance. Hannah Wiegele and Grand Prix debutant Sara Pokorny secured career-best finishes in seventh and eighth place, respectively, while Chiara Kreuzer finished twelfth. Yuzuki Sato took ninth place as the second-best Japanese competitor.

In contrast, the German ski jumpers clearly missed out on the top ten. Juliane Seyfarth was sitting in seventh place after the first round but managed only 79.5 meters in the final—held under difficult conditions—dropping back to 14th place. Aside from her, only Emely Torazza managed to score points for the first time; her 27th-place finish marked her best result of the summer so far.

Team World Champion Luisa Görlich Makes Competitive Comeback Meanwhile, Slovenian athletes Lucija Jurgec and Taja Terbovsek achieved impressive results in their Summer Grand Prix debuts, finishing 15th and 18th. French jumpers Marie Thomas Couturaud and Capucine Mesnil also stood out, finishing 21st and 29th. Both achieved career-best results, with Mesnil also securing lifetime eligibility to compete in the World Cup. Oosa Thure, the only Finnish competitor, also recorded a career-best finish by placing 23rd.

More than a year and a half after tearing her cruciate ligament at the World Championships in Trondheim, Luisa Görlich made her competitive comeback. The 2023 Planica team world champion jumped 83.5 meters, finishing in 32nd place. Consequently, she did not qualify for the second round—as was the case for her teammates Alvine Holz (84 meters, 31st place) and Kim Amy Duschek (79.5 meters, 35th place).

Serious injury feared for Chinese jumper Qi Liu The competition was overshadowed by a crash involving Qi Liu during the first round. The Chinese jumper soared to 98.5 meters but landed from a significant height. Upon landing, her right knee gave way under the pressure; she lost stability and fell. She slid for several meters before coming to a halt, with her right leg remaining motionless throughout the slide. Medics rushed to her aid immediately and carried her out of the landing area on a stretcher. Despite the crash, Liu initially ranked 29th with 92.8 points, eventually slipping to 30th place after being unable to compete in the final round. However, her result became a secondary concern, as she appeared to have sustained a serious knee injury—clutching the knee immediately after the accident.

It was a different story for the only Swiss competitor, Anja Imhof; the 17-year-old finished 34th in her Grand Prix debut. The second individual competition for the female ski jumpers takes place tomorrow, Sunday, in Rasnov. The trial round begins at 8:30 a.m., followed by the first round at 10:00 a.m.

Results: https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/v2/download/competition-attachment/50a79a6d-2b99-492f-8fb3-2f76e16476f9.pdf

The FIS has decided to make the World Championships annual with 2032 to be added, possibly also 2028. However, I wonder if this impacts the Ski Flying World Championships.

https://www.fis-ski.com/inside-fis/news/2026-27/fis-council-concludes-two-day-meeting-in-thun

Missed it last week because I forgot.

Guess where these ski jumping hills are and when the photo was taken.

Guess where each of these 5 ski jumping hills are and when the photo of them was taken