Nozomi Maruyama aims to reignite rivalry on home hill

Jan 19, 2026·Ski Jumping

Maruyama is looking to significantly improve on her previous best rest in Zao, of eighth, back in 2023 - @Dominik Berchtold/FIS/ActionPressFIS/ActionPress

The standout breakthrough star of the season, Nozomi Maruyama (JPN), will aim to reignite her rivalry with the seemingly unstoppable Nika Prevc (SLO) and deliver a strong result on a home nation hill as the 2025/26 FIS Ski Jumping World Cup campaign lands in Japan.

The second stage of the Asian segment of the tour, following the Zhangjiakou (CHN) event held at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games venue from 16-17 January, now jumps to the neighbouring nation.

Prevc has won the last six races in a row, including a double at the most recent showdown in the weather-impacted Zhangjiakou contests.

However, Maruyama, who was the early season leader in the Crystal Globe standings, had gone three World Cups without a podium finish, before securing encouraging second and third place finishes in China.

The pair, together with a strong line-up of athletes from across the planet, will take to Zao’s Normal Hill, called Kuraray Zeō Schanze, for two World Cup contests across 20-21 January.

The venue has featured in each edition of the Women’s FIS SKI Jumping World Cup circuit since its inception in 2011-12, while the hill record, of 106m, is held by legendary Japanese champion Sara Takanashi (JPN), who set the current landmark figure in 2016.

Lisa Eder (AUT) is currently this in the race for the Crystal Globe having attained seven top-three results this season and stated she was “really looking forward” to the Asian segment of the tour after strong results after arriving off the back of four successive runner-up results.

Her coach, Thomas Diethart, believes Eder has the potential to “give Nika a run for her money” and has certainly demonstrated that at times this season, however, she was ninth twice in China and will be seeking significant improvements in Zao.

One athlete who will not be jumping in Japan is Slovenia’s first-ever female Ski Jumping World champion, Ema Klinec (SLO), who took to social media in recent days to explain her recent absence from the tour this season.

The 27-year-old, a two-time Youth Olympic champion in Lillehammer a decade ago, revealed that she had hoped to compete over the New Year before developed an infection after surgery on a tooth and “ended unconscious on cardio clinic instead.”

She aims to return to training in the coming weeks, but will miss the upcoming Olympic Winter Games.

Several athletes from Norway will also have Milano-Corina 2026 on their minds this week, with five ski jumpers, including medal-contenders Anna Odine Stroem and Eirin Kvandal, missing the Japanese World Cup contests in Zao, as well as Sapporo, to focus on training.

Germany will though be well-represented with their three strongest performers from the season so far, all due to jump in Japan.

Selina Freitag (GER), who was third in the opening Zhangjiakou World Cup and is currently fifth in the overall standings, says she is “looking forward to Japan.”

“Zao and Sapporo are always worth a trip – off to the Land of the Rising Sun,” she said.

Two-time Olympic silver medalist and team-mate Katharina Schmid (GER), who will retire at the end of the season, states that she is “looking forward to one last trip to Japan” and is “curious” to “see what happens” across the events in Zao and Sapporo.