Large Hill, Individual, Men

The qualification round on 16 February confirmed excellent form by the Norwegians, Robert Johansson who qualified in first place, followed by Johann André Forfang. Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi, starting at number 33, was the surprise of the qualification round, finishing third, and in the process, set a new hill record, with a mighty jump of 143.5 m, an improvement of four metres. After Kobayashi’s record, the remaining jumpers had to climb down from gate 18 to gate 16, and even 15 for the highest ranked jumpers.

In the final the next day, Kamil Stoch was back in contention, taking the lead after the first round, followed by Austrian Michael Hayböck and the gold medalist on the normal hill, Andreas Wellinger. Hayböck had the longest jump of the round, 140 m. In the second round, lying a distant 15th place after his first jump, Norwegian Daniel-André Tande took the lead with an excellent jump of 138.5 m, and was at the top in the leaderboard with the four best men from the first round still to jump. He was then overtaken, firstly, by countryman Johansson, and then Wellinger, who took the lead with a clear margin after the best jump of the day, 142 m. Hayböck could not respond and dropped down to sixth place, but Stoch kept calm, despite a difficult wind, and took a well-deserved gold medal.