Victory in the snowstorm

Ski jumping LIVE: The Super Team competition!

Austria's GOLDEN super team duo: Jan Hörl and Stephan Embacher(Bild: Andreas Tröster)

Gold, gold, gold – at the very last minute, the red-white-red Eagles managed to win a medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics, and a gold one at that!

Jan Hörl and Stephan Embacher, who started as underdogs, won the super team competition on Monday ahead of Poland and Norway, thus saving the honor of the ÖSV, which had surprisingly remained without a medal until today's jump...

Hörl got the competition off to a perfect start for Austria, putting his team in the lead with a 137.5-meter jump, and Olympic debutant Embacher (132) defended this lead in the first round. In difficult crosswind conditions, Hörl then managed a jump of 128 meters, which proved to be very important in the final reckoning.

When Embacher then sailed to 139 meters and the day's best distance in the highly changeable conditions, Austria was clearly on course for gold, 21.4 points ahead of Poland. In the third round, with only eight teams remaining, the weather and a very hesitant jury caused more tension than necessary.

The result:

(Bild: www.olympics.com)

After Hörl had jumped 137.5 meters and further secured the gold, heavy snowfall suddenly set in with six jumpers to go. After a long delay, the third round was then abandoned and the scores after only four instead of six jumps were used.

Hörl: "We said we're going to attack today."
"I'm speechless! We really got up today and had such a good feeling – and said: Today we're going to attack. It's so awesome that it's working out for us. We haven't had a medal yet, it was a bit tough until today, but now we're at the top and can hang a gold medal around our necks," said a delighted Hörl in an ORF interview. The coaches told the athletes that they had nothing to lose. "Be relaxed, jump freely. We're at the top, we were relaxed, the jumps were perfect."

Jan Hörl(Bild: GEPA)

Embacher was only able to celebrate with his teammate late because he was not allowed to jump in the last round and had to come down from the hill first. He is now Austria's second-youngest Olympic ski jumping champion after Thomas Morgenstern, who was about a year younger at the time. As the snow flurries grew stronger, he wrapped himself in a blanket at the top to protect himself from the snow. "Really, really cool. An incredible day. Of course, as a little kid, you dream of being an Olympic champion. The fact that it happened today, in a super team with Jan, and that it's such a cool competition, makes it all the more wonderful," Embacher explained on ORF.

Widhölzl: "I'm very relieved, hats off to the guys!"
ÖSV head coach Andreas Widhölzl was very happy that the debacle did not result in a medal. "I am very relieved, hats off to the guys, they performed extremely well today. The last week and a half has not been easy, so it's cool that it turned out this way. We were able to repeat what we did in Beijing," said the Tyrolean. The team competition mobilized his jumpers' strength. "They were really relaxed for the first time today. The Games were extremely difficult for us, so it's all the more wonderful that we managed to pull it off in the end."

The super team competition replaced the traditional team jumping with four athletes at these Games. Austria had won the Olympic title four years ago in Beijing, with Hörl among the team. Hörl and Embacher had already won the only super team competition in this World Cup season in Zakopane.

Just as Fabio Gstrein saved the day for the men's alpine team with slalom silver in the early afternoon, Hörl/Embacher saved the ÖSV "Eagles" from embarrassment. In 2018 in Pyeongchang, there had been no medal for the red-white-red ski jumpers.