Olympics fight heats up as Otepää awaits hero and record
Jan 07, 2026·Nordic Combined
The Viessmann FIS Nordic Combined World Cup resumes in earnest this weekend with the first six of 16 events – eight each for women and men - across an intense 24-day period before the circuit pauses for the Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, Italy.
Following a short hiatus after the cancellation of last weekend’s events in Schonach (GER), a fervent crowd in Otepää, Estonia, will witness two Mass Starts on Friday, 9 January and two Gundersens on Saturday before three days of compelling competition concludes with a Compact for men and women on Sunday, 11 January.
Ida Marie Hagen (NOR), leading the women’s overall standings by 60 points after winning three of the first four events this season, will seek to extend that dominance in her quest to regain the Crystal Globe she won in 2023-24.
But the 25-year-old will be mindful it was Otepää last February where she suffered a costly fall in a Mass Start before finishing 15th, and also where Nathalie Armbruster (GER), her successor as overall champion, beat her for the first time in the cross-country tracks, in a Compact.
The Estonian winter capital also witnessed a memorable maiden World Cup win for Yuna Kasai (JPN), who pipped twin sister Haruka to top spot on the podium in the Mass Start.
With Haruka Kasai missing the entire season through injury, Yuna has yet to hit the same heights this season but other athletes - as well as Armbruster - have emerged to challenge Hagen in the shape of Alexa Brabec (USA) and 17-year-old Katharina Gruber (AUT).
The fight for Olympic spots is also poised to ramp up, especially among the men's leading nations, who may only have a maximum of three places in the two individual competitions being held in Val di Fiemme, Italy, next month.
Austria, for example, currently have four men in the top 10 in the standings, with Franz-Josef Rerhl (sixth) and Stefan Rettenegger (eighth) pushing hard to potentially join Yellow Bib holder Johannes Lamparter and team-mate Thomas Rettenegger, his closest challenger, while three other Austrians are also in the top 20.
The make-up of the German team for the Games will also be an intriguing sub-plot over the coming weeks, which will see two further competitions in Oberhof (GER) on 17-18 January and three at the ‘Triple’ weekend in Seefeld (AUT) at the end of the month.
Defending overall champion Vinzenz Geiger (GER) may only be 12th in the current standings, nearly 300 points behind Lamparter, after missing the first two competitions in Ruka with a foot injury and finishing 19th and eighth on his comeback in Trondheim.
But after 13th place in the Mass Start in Ramsau (AUT), the manner of his stunning Gundersen victory in the last event before the break suggests he will be a major contender again in Otepää, where he took back-to-back wins last year - pipping Jarl Magnus Riiber (NOR) on both occasions (below) - after another podium in the Mass Start.
With Geiger back to form and likely to be chosen to defend his Olympic Normal Hill crown, the competition between Julian Schmid (currently third in the standings), Wendelin Thannheimer (fifth) and 2018 Olympic Large Hill champion Johannes Rydzek (ninth) will be fierce.
The experienced Manuel Faisst (GER) will also return to the World Cup circuit this weeked for the first time this season after his recovery from an Achilles tendon rupture.
A passionate atmosphere in Otepää is guaranteed by the presence of Kristjan Ilves, who continues to fly the flag for Estonia as their lone competitor on the World Cup circuit.
After finishing fifth overall for three straight seasons from 2021-22 to 2023-24, a period when he achieved 10 of his 12 individual World Cup podiums, Ilves dropped to 10th last season – with only one podium finish – and is currently 20th in the standings, having struggled since starting the season with a fourth place in Ruka.
Based since 2020 in Trondheim, where he trains with the Norwegian team, Ilves will hope to boost his World Cup campaign back in his native country, where thousands of flag-waving fans, many wearing cut-out Ilves masks, come out to cheer their hero.
“Estonians are pretty crazy; they love to cheer someone,” Ilves told a recent FIS Race Talk. “We are such a small country that if you are doing something well, you get noticed quite fast.
“I want to be a good role model and I hope I have done a good job for parents who want to show kids what winter sports are about. It is pretty difficult these days when kids have iPads and the younger generation doesn’t always want to go out anymore, especially in cold temperatures.
“So that’s something I want to keep alive and I do everything I can to help the younger guys back home progress. My brother took over the ski club in my hometown and my dad is working with the juniors, so I try to pass on the knowledge of what we’re doing and what has worked for me, to help develop Nordic Combined in Estonia.”
Anything like a repeat of his back-to-back second places in Otepää in February 2024, after which he was picked up at the exit gate by Estonia President Alar Karis, who accompanied him to the equipment control room, would certainly go down well.
“That was special,” Ilves recalled. “I remember I had this insane choice in my head - ‘should I take my glove off?’ - because I knew it wasn't inside the rules, but I hoped they would say it was OK because I didn’t just want to offer my hand to the president with my glove on. So I took that decision and I'm proud of it now. It was amazing.”
Watabe set for World Cup record
There could also be a record-breaking milestone in Otepää with Akito Watabe (JPN), who missed the last round in Ramsau to be with his wife for the birth of their third child, returning to action.
The 37-year-old (above) is poised to break the record for most individual World Cup starts, nearly 20 years after his debut as a 17-year-old in Sapporo (JPN) in March 2006.
Watabe, who joined the circuit full-time in 2008, finished in the top three in the overall standings seven times in eight years between 2011 and 2019 and won the Crystal Globe in 2017-18, a season when he claimed eight of his 19 individual World Cup wins.
He plans to retire at the end of this winter, having already competed in 294 individual World Cup events. If he starts more than one of the three scheduled in Otepää, he will surpass Wilhelm Denifl (AUT), who competed in 295 between 2000 and 2019.
FIS NORDIC COMBINED WORLD CUP – OTEPAA SCHEDULE (all times CET)
09.01.26
12:45 – Women’s Mass Start CC
13:30 – Men’s Mass Start CC
15:30 – Women’s Individual NH SJ
16:30 – Men’s Individual NH SJ
10.01.26
09:30 – Women’s Gundersen NH SJ
10:45 – Men’s Gundersen NH SJ
12:40 – Men’s Gundersen CC 10km
13:30 – Women’s Gundersen CC 5km
11.01.26
11:30 – Women’s Compact NH SJ
12:20 – Men’s Compact NH SJ
15:00 – Women’s Compact CC 5km
15:30 – Men’s Compact CC 7.5km
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