Normal Hill, Individual, Men

Because a number of jumpers won World Cup events early in the winter, there was no clear favorite for the first ski jumping event. After the first round in the final, World Cup leader Kamil Stoch from Poland took the lead with 105.5 m, followed by the Norwegian world champion [Anders Bardal] (/athletes/101142) and Slovenian Peter Prevc.

Germany’s Andreas Wellinger, who was only ranked 14th after the first round, scored 257.1 points and led the contest with only five jumpers remaining. Thomas Diethart (AUT) later passed him with 258.3 points to place fourth overall. The top three after the first round finally took the medals. Bardal, already bronze medalist with the team in Vancouver, finished third with 264.1 points and Prevc moving from third to second with 265.3 points. Suffering from a headache, stomach ache and high temperature earlier in the day, Stoch had again the longest jump with 103.5 m, finishing with a total score of 278.0 points to take the gold medal with a large margin.

For other favorites, the outcome of this event was a major disappointment: Last year’s World Cup winner Gregor Schlierenzauer from Austria finished 11th after placing 18th in the first round. One of the top jumpers in recent years, triple Olympic Champion Thomas Morgenstern, suffered a terrible crash in training on 10 January. His participation was a last-minute decision and many observers criticized the medical staff for giving him the green light to compete, and he never seriously challenged the medalists and finished 14th. Simon Ammann, winner of four individual ski-jumping gold medals for Switzerland in 2002 and 2010, could place only 17th.