Lamparter and Oftebro target Oslo firsts as Hagen eyes win record

The two leading men of the Viessmann FIS Nordic Combined World Cup will both target a first individual win in Oslo at the Holmenkollen Ski Festival this weekend to sign off superlative seasons in style.

Home favourite Ida Marie Hagen (NOR) will also aim to bounce back from a rare cross-country defeat to embellish her second Crystal Globe with a new record for individual victories in a single season in the women’s World Cup.

Johannes Lamparter (AUT), who sealed his second overall World Cup title with a fourth-place finish in Lahti, Finland, last week, has recorded six podiums in Oslo – three seconds and three thirds – but has yet to finish on top in the Norwegian capital.

The 24-year-old has won five World Cup events this season among 10 podium finishes, one more victory than Jens Luraas Oftebro (NOR), who pipped him to Olympic Winter Games gold in both individual events in Val di Fiemme, Italy last month (below).

Oftebro’s fourth World Cup win of the season, in a Gundersen in Lahti last week, ensured he will finish runner-up to Lamparter in the overall standings, matching his best finish of 2022-23, when Lamparter also claimed the Crystal Globe.

The Norwegian‘s latest victory was all the more impressive given the demands on the 25-year-old since his heroics at the Olympics, where he became only the second Nordic Combiner after Samppa Lajunen (FIN) in 2002 to win gold in all three events at the same Games, including the Team Sprint with Andreas Skoglund (NOR).

“I felt a bit tired after the Olympics, but I guess that is allowed,” said Oftebro, who has also secured the Best Skier trophy for a third time in four seasons. “I got some energy from my jumping (in Lahti), which was better than expected so I was in contention for the win.

“I will try to be strong at Holmenkollen (Oslo) as well and then we will look forward to a break in the off-season.”

Although Oftebro has won on home snow once, in Lillehammer in December 2022, he has yet to finish higher than third in Oslo, which he achieved twice in successive days in March 2022.

His elder brother Einar Luraas Oftebro (NOR) could also put the seal on a superb breakthrough season, which has featured his first five podium finishes including a maiden win, by cementing third place in the overall World Cup standings.

The 27-year-old is 62 points ahead of Ilkka Herola (FIN) and 73 in front of Julian Schmid (GER) heading into the final competition, a Gundersen on the HS134 Large Hill on Sunday, 15 March, which will follow PCRs for women (09:30 CET) and men (11:00) on Saturday.

Oslo will also be the World Cup swansong for the great Akito Watabe (JPN), who 20 years after making his World Cup debut as a 17-year-old in March 2006, will bid farewell in the city where he claimed four of his 19 individual World Cup wins.

The 2017-18 overall champion, who finished in the top three in the standings eight times in 10 years from 2012 to 2021, confirmed after the final individual event of his sixth Olympics recently (below) that Oslo - his 303^rd individual World Cup start, more than any other Nordic Combiner - will be his last.

“I have been away from home and travelling around Europe like this for more than 20 years," added the 37-year-old, who also won four Olympic medals from 2014 to 2022.

"We had a third baby in December so I will take a break and have some time with my family while I think about what comes next.”

Hagen homes in on wins record

The women’s World Cup season will also conclude with a Large Hill Gundersen on Sunday, when Norwegian star Hagen will hope strong home support will propel her to a new record of individual wins in a single season.

The 25-year-old equalled compatriot Gyda Westvold Hansen’s record of 10 from 2022-23 in Seefeld, Austria in early February, but was pipped for victory in a thrilling finish to last week’s Gundersen cross-country race in Lahti by Minja Korhonen (FIN, below).

The 18-year-old Finn became the third woman this season to record a maiden individual World Cup win, following Katharina Gruber (AUT) – the newly-crowned Junior World champion - in Trondheim back in December and Alexa Brabec (USA), Hagen’s closest challenger in the overall rankings, in Seefeld.

But Hagen, already crowned overall champion for a second time, is poised to repeat the feat of her previous Crystal Globe-winning season of 2023/24, when she finished on the podium in every individual World Cup competition.

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

15.03.26

10:30 – Women’s Individual LH Gundersen SJ

11:20 – Men’s Individual LH Gundersen SJ

13:15 – Women’s Individual Gundersen CC 5km

13:50 – Men’s Individual Gundersen CC 10km