Nordic Combined set for Ski Flying World Cup bow in Kulm

Thomas Rettenegger (AUT), the leading men’s ski jumper in Nordic Combined this season, is anticipating “one hell of a flight” when Ski Flying makes its debut in the Viessmann FIS Nordic Combined World Cup on Friday in Kulm/Bad Mitterndorf, Austria.

Rettenegger, who has routinely soared the furthest in provisional and competition rounds on the circuit, is relishing the chance to tackle the HS235 hill which has hosted the World Ski Flying Championships on six occasions, the last time in 2024.

Coming hot on the heels of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, where Jens Luraas Oftebro (NOR) won both individual events and took gold with Andreas Skoglund in the Team Sprint, this latest highlight of the season – a historic first – marks a new chapter in the evolution of the discipline.

The inaugural Nordic Combined Ski Flying World Cup event will provide major thrills for top jumpers such as Rettenegger, as they target potential distances of around 230 meters - nearly 100m further than normal competitions - on the HS235 hill (below).

“I’m really looking forward to it because it is going to be one hell of a flight,” he said. “It’s the thing I have been looking forward to for the whole season. The Olympics are the biggest thing and then for me, it’s the flying hill.

“You are never able to train it, only do it in a competition and it’s the first time for a lot of us. Hopefully I can stick a very long jump. If I’m shorter than 200m, then I’ll be really annoyed. I really hope for 230m or something like that, but we will see.”

Rettenegger will be looking to take out the frustration of his last competition jump, in the Olympic Individual Large Hill last week in Predazzo in Val di Fiemme, Italy.

Despite nailing the joint-longest jump of 137.0m in snowy conditions for 145.4 points, the 26-year-old was upset with his landing, which left him only fourth, with an 18-second deficit on Ryota Yamamoto (JPN) heading into a cross-country which he ultimately finished 11^th, rather than his usual position in the top two.

“If I could have stuck my landing and not messed that up, I would have been 15 or 20 seconds ahead of Yamamoto and then it would have been a whole different race,” Rettenegger said.

“I could have just done my own thing for two rounds (in the tracks) and then put everything in. But I had to put everything into the first and second laps and then it became a long race for me.”

Rettenegger’s younger brother Stefan, fifth in the overall World Cup rankings, just ahead of Thomas, is also relishing the prospect of the Ski Flying première in Nordic Combined.

“Every ski jumper dreams of jumping over 200m and we’ll have the opportunity, so I’m really excited,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll have some long flights for the Austrians."

Teammate Johannes Lamparter (AUT), who won Team Sprint bronze alongside Rettenegger in Val di Fiemme, will take a 143-point lead in the overall World Cup standings over triple Milano Cortina gold medallist Oftebro into this week’s competition, one of only three individual events left this season with Gundersens in Lahti, Finland and Oslo, Norway, to follow over the next two weekends.

“We had a lot of highlights over the last few weeks,” said Lamparter, who also won two Olympic silver medals in the individual events in Val di Fiemme.

Oftebro has tipped teammate Skoglund, who has shown huge improvements on the hill this season, to be another who will relish the challenge of the HS235 hill.

“Andreas is really looking forward to it as he’s a really good ski flier,” Oftebro said. "We don’t know what to expect, but I think it will be fun.”

Johannes Rydzek (GER) has experienced a similar HS235 hill in his hometown of Oberstdorf, which hosted the latest World Ski Flying Championships last month, when the individual title was won by Slovenian star Domen Prevc (SLO).

“It’s going to be an exciting competition,” Rydzek added. “I had the chance twice to be on the Ski Flying hill in Oberstdorf and I’m looking forward to testing myself in Kulm.”

The Ski Flying World Cup debut for Nordic Combined will be in a Compact format, with athletes tackling a 7.5km cross-country race at set time intervals after the jumping.

After a provisional competition round on Thursday (12:00 CET), the Ski Flying competition round is scheduled for 10:00 CET on Friday, with the cross-country following at 16:00 CET.

FIS NORDIC COMBINED WORLD CUP – KULM SCHEDULE (all times CET)

26.02.26

10:00 - Official Training (2 rounds)

12:00 - Provisional Competition Round

27.02.26

09:00 – Men’s Ski Flying - Trial Round

10:00 – Men’s Ski Flying - Competition Round

16:00 – Men’s Compact CC 7.5km