“It’s wild!”: Kvandal soars to second straight win in Willingen

The final day of competition before the 2026 Winter Olympics delivered a thriller as Eirin Maria Kvandal (NOR) came from behind to claim her second victory of the weekend in Willingen (GER). The Norwegian was lying fourth after round one with 117pts, but soared into top spot with a final jump of 138.5m and a total of 251.8pts.

She was joined on the podium again by Nozomi Maruyama (JPN) and Nika Prevc (SLO), but this time it was the Japanese athlete who finished second with 243.9pts, ahead of the World Cup leader in third.

“It’s wild - I don’t even know what to say!” beamed Kvandal afterwards.

“It’s crazy, I’m very happy. I saw at the top there was a quite a lot of wind but I just tried to do my thing and jump the best.

“This season has been a bit rough so it’s good to see that my top jumps are coming now.”

It was again challenging conditions in Willingen and the results were anything but predictable. After round one it was Kvandal’s Norwegian teammate Anna Odine Stroem leading the way on 127.6pts. But just three points separated the top three at that stage, with Maruyama second (125.6pts) and home hope Selina Freitag (124.6pts) third.

Overall leader Prevc was down in 8th after an opener of 123m earned her 102.3pts. But the favorite for the Crystal Globe bounced back in the final round with the biggest jump of the day. Her 146m effort propelled her up the leaderboard and put the pressure on those above.

Freitag’s second jump of 125.5m wasn’t enough to overcome Prevc, but Murayama matched Kvandal’s final effort of 138.5m to leapfrog Prevc and reduce the Slovenian’s lead in the overall standings. First round-leader Stroem finished 7th after a second jump of 120m.

"I can conclude a pretty successful weekend here in Wllingen," said Prevc.

"I finally managed to do a good jump here, a really good jump here, and that's why I can go home satisfied.

There was a career-best finish for USA's Josie Johnson with her first-ever top 10 place. Katharina Schmid (GER) bid an emotional farewell to her home World Cup with a final score of 181.4pts to finish 11th. The two-time Olympic medalist will end her career after Milan Cortina 2026.