Rydzek ramps up Games bid on Oberhof World Cup return
Jan 14, 2026·Nordic Combined
The Viessmann FIS Nordic Combined World Cup returns to Oberhof, Germany, for the first time in 16 years this weekend at a pivotal point in the season.
For the men, these will be the final competitions to count towards Olympics qualification before the 36 spots available for the Winter Games in Milano-Cortina, Italy, next month are allocated.
On the women’s side, anyone with ambitions of thwarting Norwegian star Ida Marie Hagen’s bid for a second Crystal Globe will need to make a move in Oberhof.
After her triple success in Otepää, the 2023-2024 champion now leads the overall standings by 140 points from Alexa Brabec (USA) and 181 from Minja Korhonen (FIN), with defending champion Nathalie Armbruster (GER) trailing by 270 points after a costly disqualification for a suit infringement on the final day in Estonia.
Hagen’s fourth, fifth and sixth victories from seven completed events this season – she finished second in the other – means she could set a new record for women’s Nordic Combined individual World Cup wins this weekend, having drawn level on 23 with two-time overall champion Gyda Westvold Hansen (NOR) in Otepää.
A Compact on Saturday and a Gundersen on Sunday will be the first two of seven remaining individual competitions scheduled this season, with the Seefeld ‘Triple’ – where Hagen’s campaign came unstuck last season – to follow at the end of January.
After the cancellation of the scheduled events in Schonach at the start of January, Oberhof will be the first time this season Armbruster and a clutch of leading men’s contenders get the opportunity to compete on ‘home’ snow.
Germany has four of the top 10 in the men's World Cup standings including Johannes Rydzek, one of only two current Nordic Combiners - Italian veteran Alessandro Pittin is the other - who competed in Oberhof the last time it hosted World Cup action in January 2010.
Rydzek was 18 (below) when he finished 20th and 21st in two Gundersens at the town in the Thuringian Forest mountains in central Germany, having also competed in a World Cup in Oberhof as a 17-year-old in December 2008.
Now 34, Rydzek is targeting a fifth Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina next month, having won Individual Large Hill gold and Team gold in PyeongChang (KOR) in 2018, adding to a Team bronze in Whistler, Canada (2010) and Team silver in Sochi, Russia (2014).
Rydzek also competed in Beijing, China, in 2022, finishing fifth in the Normal Hill Gundersen.
His recent form suggests he may well claim one of the individual spots on the German team - most countries will be awarded two places, with some leading nations possibly three - despite competition from defending World Cup champion Vinzenz Geiger, Julian Schmid (second in the current standings), Wendelin Thannheimer (ninth) and others in the top 20 such as David Mach and Richard Stenzel.
In his last six World Cup competitions, Rydzek has finished seventh, seventh, fifth, fifth, second and second. Those successive podiums in Otepää, his first since he won in Ruka at the start of last season, lifted him to sixth in the standings, two points behind Ilkka Herola in fifth.
But the manner of Johannes Lamparter’s Compact victory last Sunday – he has won both Compacts held this season, and four of nine events overall – suggests the Austrian will take some stopping as he bids to add a second title to his 2022-23 Crystal Globe.
The 24-year-old now has a commanding lead of 150 points over Schmid and 162 over Thomas Rettenegger (AUT), with Jens Luraas Oftebro (NOR) 238 points back in fourth - despite being way ahead in the Best Skier rankings - after three successive fourth places in Otepää.
The action in Oberhof will begin with Provisional Competition Rounds for the women and men on Friday before Compact events for both on Saturday.
Two Gundersens conclude proceedings on Sunday, 18 January.
FIS NORDIC COMBINED WORLD CUP – OBERHOF SCHEDULE (all times CET)
17.01.26
09:00 – Women’s Compact NH SJ
09:45 – Men’s Compact NH SJ
11:45 – Women’s Compact CC 5km
12:30 – Men’s Compact CC 7.5km
18.01.26
08:30 – Women’s Gundersen NH SJ
09:15 – Men’s Gundersen NH SJ
14:35 – Women’s Gundersen CC 5km
15:45 – Men’s Gundersen CC 10km
