Maruyama wins the wind lottery

Japanese ski jumper Nozomi Maruyama celebrated a triumphant victory at her home World Cup in Zao. The competition from the normal hill was extremely turbulent.

20 January 2026

From: dpa/apa/fop

Extremely difficult conditions – characterized by strongly changing winds and light snowfall – led to several delays in the competition on Saturday.

In the end, local favorite Maruyama prevailed with a total of 222,5 points, having already achieved the longest jump in the first round and finished second in the final. Austrian Lisa Eder (207,1 points) and German Selina Freitag (205,8 points) took the other podium positions.

Slovenia's Nika Prevc, who leads the overall World Cup standings, did not make it onto the podium this time. She finished fourth, 0,2 points behind Freitag.

Annika Sieff points out

The best Italian finisher was Annika Sieff from Trentino, who achieved a respectable 14th place. She was even in sixth place after the first round, but slipped back in difficult wind conditions. No skiers from South Tyrol are competing in Zao.

Keywords Winter sports Ski jumping