Normal Hill, Individual, Women

The defending Olympic champion and 2019 World Champion in the women’s normal hill, Maren Lundby of Norway, elected not to compete at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, which left an element of uncertainty for the podium. At the 2021 World Championships she had been bested by Ema Klinec of Slovenia, who had also won the event at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics, but finished only 14th in 2018. The runner-up in 2018 had been Germany’s Katharina Althaus, while Sara Takanashi of Japan was the most recent Olympic and World bronze medalist.

The surprise winner of the event was another Slovenian, Urša Bogataj, who had never before won an individual event as a senior, yet had the furthest jump of the entire competition in round one. Although she had collected medals at the 2012 Youth Winter Olympics, she had placed only 30th in the normal hill at the 2018 PyeongChang Games, and her only other medal was silver in the team normal hill at the most recent World Championships. Her victory made her only the second Slovenian Winter Olympic champion, after Alpine skier Tina Maze.

Bogataj’s compatriot Nika Križnar, who had been seventh in 2018, took bronze, after ranking third and second in rounds one and two respectively, making it the first time that two Olympians from the same country had stood on the podium in a women’s ski jumping event. Križnar was also a team silver medalist from the 2021 Worlds and had taken bronze individually that year in the large hill. Althaus, who was ahead in round one, dropped to third in round two and repeated her silver medal performance from 2018. Takanashi and Klinec, meanwhile, placed fourth and fifth respectively.