Nika Prevc continued with her good form in the Two Nights Tour, as despite a difficult first round in Oberstdorf, she won the Tour overall. The competitions were full of surprises, as in Garmisch-Partenkirchen Selina Freitag scored her first podium of the season, while in Oberstdorf Abigail Strate won her first-ever World Cup event, and Zeng Ping became the first Chinese jumper to stand on the World Cup podium.

by Maciej Jackiewicz

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

The 2025–26 Two Nights Tour began with qualification in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on 30 December, held in very changeable conditions. The first notable jump of the session came from Germany’s Julina Kreibich, who took the lead with a 119.5-metre effort. She remained in first place for a long time, before Nordic combined athletes Minja Korhonen and Gyda Westvold Hansen jumped 122 and 132 metres respectively. Hansen’s jump prompted the jury to lower the gate from 27 to 26, but this adjustment proved short-lived, as after Anežka Indráčková set a new Czech national record with a 132-metre jump, the gate was lowered once again.

Eirin Maria Kvandal, 52nd on the entry list, had her gate reduced to 23 and despite that produced a magnificent 136.5-metre jump to move into the lead. She was quickly overtaken by Selina Freitag, who jumped 134 metres from gate 21 following a coach request. A long break followed before Nika Vodan’s attempt, as backwind once again dominated conditions in Garmisch. However, this did not prevent Lisa Eder and later Nika Prevc from taking over the lead. Conditions shifted one final time before the jump of World Cup leader Nozomi Maruyama, who took full advantage to win the qualification by 0.7 points ahead of Prevc.

The New Year’s Eve individual competition, held in the knockout system where only 20 jumpers qualify for the second round instead of the usual 30, was plagued by issues in the opening round. It began with frontwind conditions, which allowed Katharina Schmid and Gyda Westvold Hansen to produce strong jumps and win their respective duels. Shortly after, backwind appeared on the hill, prompting the jury to raise the gate from 21 to 22. Despite the change, both Zeng Ping and Sara Takanashi jumped beyond the K-point, each taking the lead in quick succession.

Takanashi remained at the top for a considerable time, holding off solid attempts from the likes of Agnes Reisch and Lisa Eder. Her lead eventually came to an end when Selina Freitag jumped 127 metres to move into first place. Freitag finished the round second, as Nika Prevc delivered a magnificent 136.5-metre jump to take a commanding lead. Prevc ended the first round ahead of Freitag and Eder, while qualification winner Nozomi Maruyama concluded the round in fourth after a 127-metre effort.

The second round opened in highly competitive fashion, with the first four jumpers all taking turns in the lead. The last of them, Heidi Dyhre Traaserud, jumped 125 metres with supportive backwind and stayed in first place for an extended period. Three jumps later, Nika Vodan moved into the lead with a 122-metre jump, before being overtaken by Gyda Westvold Hansen, followed by Eirin Maria Kvandal and Abigail Strate.

Conditions improved ahead of the top ten from the first round. Zeng Ping, who had been sixth at the halfway point, was the first among them to surpass Strate, jumping 126.5 metres to assume the provisional lead. As in the first round, however, her time at the top was short, with Sara Takanashi once again moving ahead. Nozomi Maruyama then produced a strong 133.5-metre jump to launch herself onto the podium, ultimately finishing third. Selina Freitag followed with a 135.5-metre effort to secure her first podium of the season, but victory belonged to Nika Prevc, who sealed the win with a 134.5-metre jump and an extraordinary winning margin of 23.1 points. A few hours after the competition ended, Anna Odine Strøm, who originally finished 11th, was disqualified for an additional insert in her sock.

Oberstdorf

All of the jumps in Oberstdorf took place on New Year’s Day, and the whole day was very chaotic in terms of wind. The qualification started from gate 28 with a strong backwind, but after just seven jumps the jury decided to move it to gate 30. This gate remained in place for a longer time, as it was changed before the jump of Julia Kykkänen with Bib 29 to gate 28. Just after Kykkänen, Maja Kovačič jumped 127 metres, which was the first jump over the K-point in this qualification round. With the wind conditions again getting more difficult, the gate was again moved up to gate 30. Unfortunately, the 19-year-old Anežka Indráčková was not able to land her jump on the 118-metre mark, but nothing serious happened to the Czech athlete.

After Indráčková, Gyda Westvold Hansen took on the hill and landed on 127 metres and with that she became the new leader. Gate was moved down again to gate 28, but just for seven jumpers as before the jump of Agnes Reisch the gate moved up again to gate 30. Reisch’s compatriot Selina Freitag used the high gate to jump 125.5 metres, putting her in the lead. This was short-lived as in order Lisa Eder, Anna Odine Strøm and finally Nika Prevc were able to achieve results, that put them at the front. The qualification round ended with Prevc winning with a 9.8-point gap over Nozomi Maruyama.

The competition held just after the qualification round was similar to it, as the wind caused havoc on the hill. It started from gate 28, but it was moved up to gate 29, then gate 30 and then back to gate 28. In the second pair, Agnes Reisch jumped 128 metres to lead, but two duels later Nika Vodan bettered the German’s result with a 129-metre effort, putting her in the leading spot. Gate was moved again, but it didn’t impact the competition a lot, as no one could improve on Vodan’s result.

There were good jumps from the likes of Silje Opseth, Zeng Ping and Selina Freitag, and all of them would be classified in the top 10 after the first round, but none could be better than the Slovenian. It changed after the jump of Abigail Strate, who after achieving magnificent 136 metres led with a 15-point margin over Vodan. The wind conditions got worse come the end of the round, which resulted in good jumpers struggling. The most notable example of that was Prevc, who jumped only 105 metres, but thanks to being tied on points in her pair, she made it through to the second round. The first half of the competition ended with Strate in the lead, ahead of Vodan and Opseth.

The second round began with a big delay, but compared to the first one it went quite smoothly. The backwind was huge, as athletes got as much as 30 points of compensation for it. It started off with Josie Johnson, who despite losing her pair to Frida Westman, made her way through to the second round as the latter was disqualified. By far the most impressive in the second round was Nika Prevc, who after a disappointing first round, roared back with a 128.5-metre jump, thanks to which she stayed in P1 for the longest time in the second round.

Prevc, who was 17th after the first round, lost her lead only after the 126.5-metre effort from Zeng Ping, who was still chasing her first World Cup podium. The possibility of her scoring it in Oberstdorf were high after this jump, as none of the competitors that followed were able to outscore the Chinese jumper. Selina Freitag came close, but her 118-metre jump was enough only for second, as she was classified only 0.4 point off Zeng. But the Chinese jumper wasn’t able to win the competition, as Abigail Strate despite jumping 116 metres, won her first-ever World Cup event. She was followed by Zeng, for whom it was the first ever career podium, as well as China’s first ever top three in the sport, and Freitag. Prevc after an impressive comeback finished in fourth.

Nika Prevc won the Two Nights Tour overall, with a 22.4-point gap over Freitag in second and 30.8-point one over Nozomi Maruyama. Although the two competitions were not as successful as she might have anticipated, Maruyama kept the World Cup lead, but it is now only 36 points over Prevc.

Results

Session	1st	2nd	3rd	Full results
Garmisch qualification	Nozomi Maruyama, 141.2 points	Nika Prevc, +0.7p	Lisa Eder, +4.8p	Here
Garmisch individual	Nika Prevc, 271.1 points	Selina Freitag, +23.1p	Nozomi Maruyama, +27.0p	Here
Oberstdorf qualification	Nika Prevc, 144.6 points	Nozomi Maruyama, +9.8p	Anna Odine Strøm, +9.9p	Here
Oberstdorf individual	Abigail Strate, 268.2 points	Zeng Ping, +10.5p	Selina Freitag, +10.9p	Here
Two Nights Tour overall	Nika Prevc, 527.7 points	Selina Freitag, +22.4p	Nozomi Maruyama, +30.8p	Here

Header photo credit: Siol.net