Large Hill, Individual, Men

Norway’s Marius Lindvik and Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi were the winner and runner-up respectively in the large hill tournament at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and were back to compete again in 2026. Lindvik had already taken silver in the team normal hill, while Kobayashi had captured bronze. Kobayashi had also taken silver and bronze at the 2023 and 2025 World Championships, respectively, while Slovenia’s Domen Prevc was the reigning World Champion, the 2025-26 World Cup leader, and a gold medalist in the team normal hill event. Also in contention were Austria’s Jan Hörl, the 2025 World runner-up and former Olympic Champion in the team large hill, and 2023 World Champion Timi Zajc of Slovenia.

Prevc and Hörl performed well in the official training rounds, with the former posting the top jump at 143.5 metres, but they were rivaled by another Japanese competitor, Ren Nikaido, who had taken bronze medals in both the individual and team normal hill events. In the first round, Nikaido’s 140.0 metre jump led the field, with Prevc coming in 1.5 metres and seven points behind him. Zajc and Lindvik failed to make it to the qualifying round, but another Norwegian, Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal, who had taken silver in the team normal hill, was third.

In the final round, Prevc jumped 141.5 metres and gained enough of a lead, over 300 points total, that Nikaido could not catch him, forcing the Japanese competitor to settle for silver. Sundal, meanwhile, came up short and was leapfrogged by Kacper Tomasiak, the individual normal hill runner-up, for the bronze medal. Tomasiak would go on to win another silver medal in the super team event. Hörl, meanwhile, placed fifth.