Armbruster & Hagen renew rivalry as women’s World Cup opens in Trondheim

Ida Marie Hagen (NOR) and Nathalie Armbruster (GER) will begin a new chapter in their developing rivalry as the women’s Viessmann FIS Nordic Combined World Cup season begins in Trondheim (NOR) later this week.

The 2023-24 Crystal Globe winner and defending overall champion Armbruster are likely to take centre stage as one of the sport’s traditional homes hosts two women’s events and two more men’s competitions from Friday, 5 December to Sunday, 7 December.

Hagen, 25, will be determined to make an early statement on home snow after seeing last season surprisingly unravel after victories in the first seven events.

A disqualification for a suit infringement in Seefeld (AUT), also ruling her out of the Gundersen on the final day of the ‘Triple’ weekend - which yielded extra points for the winner – resulted in a huge momentum shift in the fight for the overall crown.

Armbruster’s first two individual World Cup wins in Seefeld saw the 19-year-old take over the leader’s Yellow Bib and when she beat Hagen in the cross-country tracks for the first time in Otepää for her third victory, it cemented a lead in the standings she would not relinquish.

In doing so Armbruster became the first German woman to win the overall title and break Norway’s dominance of the early years of the World Cup.

The 19-year-old comes into the new season on the back of a successful Summer Grand Prix series, in which she won two of the three individual events and also helped Germany triumph in Women’s Team and Mixed Team Sprint events.

But Hagen will take confidence from her record in Norway, where she has finished on the podium in her last 10 World Cup events with four victories among them, including the last World Cup competition in Trondheim in March 2024.

The 25-year-old also won a silver medal in the Gundersen at the World Championships earlier this year in Trondheim, where Armbruster could only manage a sixth and eighth place in the two individual events after struggling on the HS102 Normal Hill.

“I was very slow on the in-run, I struggled with my speed and I never usually struggle with that,” she said at the time. “I don’t know, some hills you like more, some you like less. It’s a little bit strange to describe the feeling when you don’t like a hill.”

The winner of both individual women’s events at those World Championships, Gyda Westvold Hansen (NOR), is not competing in Nordic Combined this season with the two-time Crystal Globe winner focusing on Ski Jumping this winter to try to qualify for the Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina (ITA).

But teenage Finnish duo Minja Korhonen (FIN) and Heta Hirvonen (FIN), plus Lisa Hirner (AUT), who have also been focusing on Ski Jumping in recent weeks, are set to compete in Trondheim.

Yuna Kasai (JPN), who finished fourth overall last season, is another athlete with happy memories of the venue, having won a shock World Championship gold in the Mass Start competition back in February.

Lamparter eyes fifth straight win

After a PCR on the Normal Hill on Thursday, the women will start with an individual Gundersen on Friday before a Mass Start on Saturday, with the men also competing in a Mass Start on the same day, before they tackle the HS138 Large Hill in an individual Gundersen on Sunday.

Johannes Lamparter (AUT), who won the two completed competitions on the season-opening weekend in Ruka (FIN), will aim to build on his strong start and claim a fifth successive individual World Cup win overall, having also won the final two events of last season.

Lamparter called his back-to-back victories in a Compact and Gundersen in Ruka “a perfect start”, having posted two excellent jumps on the hill – one in the PCR - and shown his strength in the cross-country tracks.

“The Yellow Bib is always special and I am definitely moving with a big smile on to Trondheim,” the 24-year-old added.

Julian Schmid (GER), who was also in good form as he finished second to Lamparter in both completed events in Ruka, will be targeting a first victory in an individual World Cup competition since February 2023 in Oberstdorf (GER).

With five-time overall champion Jarl Magnus Riiber (NOR) and veteran Joergen Graabak (NOR) both retired, home hopes are likely to rest with Jens Luraas Oftebro (NOR) - who finished fifth in the Ruka Compact but was not his usual dominant self in the tracks - and his elder brother Einar Luraas Oftebro (NOR), who followed a ninth place in the Compact with fourth in the Gundersen, his best-ever World Cup result.

Austrian siblings Thomas and Stefan Rettenegger (AUT) also drew optimism from their season-opening efforts, with Thomas earning only his second individual World Cup podium finish in the Gundersen and Stefan winning the Mass Start cross-country on the final day, only for the competition to be cancelled when no ski jumping was possible.

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

05.12.25

11:00 – Women’s NH SJ

14:15 – Women’s Gundersen 5km

06.12.25

09:40 – Men’s Individual Mass Start

10:20 – Women’s Individual Mass Start

14:50 – Women’s NH SJ  

15:35 – Men’s NH SJ  

07.12.25

10:55 – Men’s Individual LH SJ

14:05 – Men’s Individual Gundersen 10km