"One hell of a day"

Historic! ÖSV eagles celebrate a quadruple victory

Stefan Kraft wins ahead of Daniel Tschofenig and Jan Hörl.(Bild: Geir Olsen / NTB)

High-flyer Stefan Kraft has led a historic ÖSV quadruple victory in the Ski Jumping World Cup on the new large hill in Trondheim. Kraft celebrated his twelfth win of the season at the venue of the 2025 World Championships on Wednesday ahead of Daniel Tschofenig, Jan Hörl and Daniel Huber. Michael Hayböck was another ÖSV eagle in sixth place. It was the first red-white-red quadruple victory in the World Cup since 1980 in Thunder Bay, Canada, and only the third ever.

"A perfect day for us," said Kraft overjoyed in an ORF interview after his 42nd World Cup victory. The 30-year-old from Salzburg won on an Austrian ski jumping holiday in Norway, one point ahead of Tschofenig from Carinthia and three points ahead of Hörl from Salzburg. "An incredible team performance, everyone must have done everything right," added Kraft after jumps of 137.5 and 134 meters and also praised the service team for the equipment in the drizzling rain.

With his 116th World Cup podium finish, Kraft extended his lead in the overall World Cup over Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi to a comfortable 303 points four competitions before the end of the season. Kobayashi, who was victorious on the newly built normal hill on Tuesday, had to settle for 14th place after two botched jumps. Kraft could theoretically secure the crystal globe at the next competition in Vikersund on Saturday.

(Bild: Geir Olsen / NTB)

Stefan Kraft wins ahead of Daniel Tschofenig and Jan Hörl.(Bild: Geir Olsen / NTB)

Johann Andre Forfang falls
Kraft also increased his lead in the Raw Air classification, in which three competitions are still to come. The second-placed Bergisel winner Hörl is now 26 points behind, the Norwegian local hero Johann Andre Forfang missed out on a top place after a fall in the second run in eighth place on the day and is already 46.9 points behind in third place. The dominant protégés of head coach Andreas Widhölzl now lead the Nations Cup by 2,242 points ahead of Germany.

Johann Andre Forfang(Bild: Geir Olsen / NTB)

Tschofenig only just missed out on his first individual World Cup victory. "I still have to wait for that. But it's extremely satisfying to be back after a mixed season," said the 21-year-old. Hörl spoke of a "brutal team performance", saying he couldn't believe it himself. "It's cool that it worked out like that. We'll have a beer or two, but there's still one more stop (in the Raw Air, ed.) and we have to perform there too."

Stefan Kraft(Bild: Geir Olsen / NTB)

Team Olympic champion Huber was speechless. "Sensational. We knew we were really good at ski jumping, but for something like this to happen, it's a special day and hard to believe," said the man from Salzburg, giving an insight into the team spirit. "It's great fun to be out and about with this team. We have an insane amount of fun and we are really good friends. We don't just say that, we live it. That makes a huge difference, together with the coaches."

"One hell of a day"
Widhölzl was also more than satisfied. "It was an amazing day for us. I'm a bit speechless myself," said the Tyrolean. He was a little surprised himself that it turned out like this. "That's what distinguishes our work over the summer and fall, that we're fit for the whole season and extremely capable at the end." The last time Armin Kogler, Hubert Neuper, Toni Innauer and Klaus Tuchscherer celebrated an ÖSV quadruple victory was 44 years ago. Only four Slovenians have ever achieved this feat at the 2022 ski flying event in Planica.

The season continues this weekend with two ski flying competitions on the "Monsterbakken" in Vikersund, where the qualification on Friday also counts towards the raw air ranking. The season will also end next week with a ski flying competition in Planica. For ski flying world champion Kraft, it's all about his third overall World Cup victory after 2016/17 and 2019/20; Kraft leads the Ski Flying World Cup on equal points ahead of Slovenia's Peter Prevc.