Hagen pips Armbruster to win as rivalry sets tone for the season
Dec 05, 2025·Nordic Combined
Norwegian star Ida Marie Hagen battled the defending overall champion and her great German rival Nathalie Armbruster to win the Viessmann FIS Nordic Combined World Cup 2025-26 season opener by just +0.1 seconds after the 5km Individual Gundersen in Trondheim.
Hagen, who pipped Armbruster over the line, said of being back in the yellow leader bib: “It feels so good, I like this colour.” The Crystal Globe winner started +1.31 behind her young compatriot Ingrid Laate after finishing in sixth place in the HS102 Normal Hill, and managed to overtake her on the final lap along with Armbruster who started the race in third.
Armbruster was not disappointed with her second place however, as she managed to hold off a virus to fight for her title as she and Hagen hunted down Laate who started nearly a minute ahead of the pack after winning the Normal Hill earlier in the day.
Hagen was also delighted to see training partner Alexa Brabec (USA) get her first ever World Cup podium with third place. “It means so much, it is so cool as she has been working so hard these last years,” said Hagen. “I really just waited for it as she’s been having this amazing progress and she’s been so dedicated in her work and it’s inspiring to have her on the team.”
The event showcased a new emerging Norwegian talent as the 18-year-old Laate followed up her 100-meter Provisional Competition Round win in the Normal Hill with a 96-meter win in the competition round, with 126.4 points and a +0.58 lead over the nearest jumper Heta Hirvonen (FIN). Laate is a Junior World Championship medallist and silver medallist at the Norwegian Nationals behind Hagen.
The start of the Normal Hill was packed with young athletes, including Minja Korhonen (FIN), who became the youngest-ever woman at the age of 16 to reach the podium at a World Cup event when she finished third at Ramsau on 15 December 2023. She finished fifth in Trondheim after placing behind Hagen for the Individual Gundersen.
Tara Geraghty-Moats’ comeback was a less successful than she might have hoped, as the winner of the first-ever Women’s Nordic Combined World Cup event in Ramsau in 2020, having switched to biathlon in recent years, only managed a 19th place finish this time around.
The American was also the first to hold the overall title after the Covid-19 pandemic meant that was the only World Cup event to be held that season. Her break from the event showed in the Normal Hill as her 71m jump put her in 30th position and +4:21 behind the rest of the field for the Individual Gundersen.
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