Lisa Hirner makes Olympic history
Jan 18, 2020·Nordic Combined
Lisa Hirner captured the first-ever Olympic gold medal in Women’s Nordic Combined and teammate Stefan Rettenegger stormed to the men’s gold medal in Les Tuffes/Lausanne today. Hirner beat her closest adversary, reigning junior World champion Ayane Miyazaki (JPN), by 3.2 seconds, Jenny Nowak (GER) won bronze by finishing +4.7 seconds after Hirner. In the men’s race, Rettenegger had an advantage of 13.8 seconds on runner-up Perttu Reponen from Finland at the finish line. Sebastian Østvold captured bronze for Norway (+16.3 sec).
Thea Minyan Bjørseth (NOR) fulfilled all expectations of being the strongest ski jumper of the women's field and won the round with a jump of 87 metres (126.6 p.). However, Jenny Nowak was in hot pursuit and with 84 metres and 123.4 points started only 10 seconds after the Norwegian jumping prodigy. Japanese Junior World Champion Ayane Miyazaki was third with 84 metres and 120 points and started her race 20 seconds after the leader.
In the race, it first looked like today would be Nowak’s glory day as the German took the lead from the Bjørseth on the first lap already. By the halfway point of the race, Nowak lead the way while four other skiers were poised to fight for the three podium positions: Minyan Bjørseth, Westvold Hansen, Hirner and Miyazaki.
Hirner, normally known as a stronger ski jumper, skied an incredible last lap and managed to leave all four other athletes behind. In the end, Ayane Miyazaki was not able to follow Hirner but beat out Jenny Nowak for the bronze in an intense fight at the women’s Olympic premiere.
Westvold Hansen had to be satisfied with the fourth rank, Emilia Görlich was the fastest skier on the track and skied into fifth position. The Top Ten were completed by Annika Sieff (ITA), Thea Minyan Bjørseth (NOR), Johanna Bassani (AUT), Haruka Kasai (JPN) and Daniela Dejori (ITA).
