Normal Hill / 10 km, Individual, Men

Four of the top eight athletes from the Nordic Combined World Cup tested positive for Covid-19 upon arrival at Beijing, and it meant that the Germans Eric Frenzel and Terence Weber, Kristjan Ilves from Estonia, and Jarl Magnus Riiber from Norway were unable to compete. Riiber and Frenzel were the respective reigning world and Olympic champions, and their withdrawal meant Johannes Lamparter, the current World Cup leader, was the favourite.

Ryota Yamamoto made a giant 108-metre jump in the ski jumping competition and was four metres longer than the next best jump. He started the cross country 38 seconds ahead of Austrian Lukas Greiderer, with the Germans Julian Schmid and Johannes Rydzek a few seconds behind. The question was, would the good skiers like Ilkka Herola (Finland), Jørgen Graabak (Norway) and Vinzenz Geiger (Germany) be able to catch the group ahead.

The competition consisted of four laps of 2,5km, and after 1km Yamamoto had lost 20 seconds to the chasing group, and at the end of the first lap, the group had caught him. A large group of seven skiers headed by Herola were in pursuit 30 seconds behind. Rydzek increased the tempo on the second lap with Yamamoto falling behind after 5km. Schmid took the lead in the third lap, and at that point it looked like it would be a German triumph. Geiger passed Herola on the third lap and led a second group going into the last lap. At that point, Geiger was pushing hard, and the group were 18 seconds behind the three men in front of them.

Schmid had apparently pushed too hard on the third lap and fell back when Rydzek increased the speed on the fourth lap. Greiderer who was also struggling, held on to Rydzek until 8,5km. At that point, Geiger was improving and passed Schmid into third place, with Graabak a few metres behind. Geiger and Graabak sprinted past Rydzek 500m from the finish line, with Geiger taking gold. The Austrians Griederer and Lamparter also overtook the struggling Rydzek, who could only finish in fifth place. Not only were Geiger and Graabak first and second, but they also had the two fastest skiing times in the competition.