Normal Hill, Individual, Men

The qualification competition on 8 February reduced the field from 57 to 50 competitors, with no major casualties. The favorites, Germany’s Andreas Wellinger and Poland’s Kamil Stoch, made the two best jumps and confirmed their excellent form.

In the final, two days later, the conditions were difficult, with air temperature around minus 10 celsius and with varying wind. In the first round, the Pole Stefan Hula held a surprising lead, after a jump of 111 m. He was followed by his compatriot Stoch and the Norwegian Johann André Forfang, who were equal in second place. Wellinger was still in contention, lying in fifth place, with the German Richard Freitag fourth.

In the second round, Robert Johansson of Norway, lying 10th after the first round, equaled the hill record with a jump of 113.5 m. With five jumpers to go, Johansson was still leading, but was overtaken by Wellinger, who put in a stylish jump, also 113.5 m. Freitag could not respond, dropping to ninth place, but Forfang passed Johansson with a good second jump, but not good enough to catch Wellinger. With the two Poles remaining, defending champion Stoch had a disappointing jump and ended without a medal. Hula, in spite of rather good wind conditions, could not live up to his first jump, and finished behind Stoch. Andreas Wellinger, who won two silver medals in the 2017 World Championships, claimed his first international championships gold medal in a tough competition under difficult conditions. Simon Ammann, double gold medalist in 2002 and 2010, was called back from the start gate four times before his last jump and finished in 11th place. Bronze medalist Johansson said after his second jump that he had no feeling in his feet, because of the cold and windy conditions. The competition came to an end after midnight local time.