PREVIEW SKI JUMPING 2023/2024 WORLD CUP - MEN

The favorites for the overall ski jumping World Cup are known, but, as always in ski jumping, things can go very differently than expected.
Small details that don't work in the jumping system and a favorite is out of the top spots for a while.
In Ruka we will see how well the athletes have worked in the summer and who can hope to win the overall World Cup.
And we will see which newcomer, which surprise man will be in the fight for the big crystal globe.

Halvor Egner Granerud

• Halvor Egner Granerud won the overall World Cup in 2020/21 and 2022/23 and he can become the fourth man to win the trophy at least three times, after Matti Nykänen (4), Adam Malysz (4) and Andreas Goldberger (3).

• The most recent man to win the overall World Cup in successive seasons was Janne Ahonen in 2003/04 and 2004/05.

• Last season, Granerud became the third ski jumper to win the overall World Cup, the Four Hills Tournament and Raw Air in the same season, after Kamil Stoch (in 2017/18) and Ryoyu Kobayashi (in 2018/19).

• Granerud can become first man to win the overall World Cup and Four Hills Tournament double in back-to-back years.

• Granerud won last season's overall World Cup with 2,128 points. Only Peter Prevc recorded more points in a single men's World Cup season: 2,303 in 2015/16.

• Granerud won 12 of the 32 individual World Cup events last season, at least six more than his nearest rival (Dawid Kubacki 6).

• Granerud (25) is joint-10th in the all-time individual World Cup event winners, alongside Andreas Felder (25). Martin Schmitt (28, ninth), Stefan Kraft (30, joint-seventh) and Ryoyu Kobayashi (30, joint-seventh) and are next on the list.

• Norway (149) is one short of 150 victories in men's individual events in the World Cup, behind only Austria (267) and Finland (151).

Stefan Kraft

• Stefan Kraft finished second in the overall World Cup standings last season for his fifth podium finish in the World Cup standings (two wins, two second places, one third place). Only three men recorded at least six podium finishes in the overall World Cup: Janne Ahonen (8), Andreas Felder (6) and Kamil Stoch (6).

• In the past eight seasons, the runner-up of the previous season won the overall World Cup standings in the following season three times: Peter Prevc in 2015/16, Kamil Stoch in 2017/18 and Kraft himself in 2019/20.

• Kraft can become the fourth male ski jumper to win the overall World Cup at least three times, after Matti Nykänen (4), Adam Malysz (4) and Andreas Goldberger (3).

• Kraft (98) is two short of becoming the second man to record at least 100 podium finishes in individual World Cup events, after Janne Ahonen (108).

• Kraft is the only man to have recorded at least one individual World Cup podium in each of the last 11 seasons (2012/13 to 2022/23).

• Kraft (2016/17, 2019/20, 2022/23) can become the first man to win the individual ski flying World Cup standings a record four times.

Other contenders

• Only Granerud (12) won as many individual men's World Cup events last season as Dawid Kubacki (6). Kubacki finished fourth in the overall standings, his joint-best result (also fourth in 2019/2020).

• Kubacki could become the third male ski jumper from Poland to win the overall World Cup, after Adam Malysz (4) and Kamil Stoch (2).

• Stoch has won 39 men's individual World Cup events, joint-third on the all-time list alongside Adam Malysz. Only Gregor Schlierenzauer (53) and Matti Nykänen (46) won more. Stoch's last World Cup event win was the individual large hill event in Titisee-Neustadt on 9 January 2021.

• Poland (99) can become the fifth country to reach the landmark of 100 men's individual World Cup wins, after Austria, Finland, Norway and Germany (including former East and West Germany).

• Ryoyu Kobayashi is the only non-European male winner of the overall World Cup, lifting the globe in 2018/19 and in 2021/22.

• Kobayashi can become the fourth man to win the overall World Cup at least three times, after Matti Nykänen (4), Adam Malysz (4) and Andreas Goldberger (3).

• Kobayashi is joint-seventh in the all-time individual World Cup event winners, alongside Stefan Kraft (30). Jens Weißflog (33) is next on the list.

• Anže Lanišek finished third in the overall World Cup standings last season. Only two Slovenian men have won the overall World Cup: Primož Peterka (in 1996/97 and 1997/98) and Peter Prevc (in 2015/16).

• Andreas Wellinger won two individual World Cup events last season, in Lake Placid (11 February) and Râsnov (18 February). The German had never won multiple individual World Cup events in a single season before.

• Timi Zajc claimed the gold medal on the men's individual large hill event at the 2023 world championships in Planica. Zajc also won the last individual World Cup event of the 2022/23 season, in Planica (ski flying).

• At the age of 42, Simon Ammann will compete in his 26th World Cup season. Only Noriaki Kasai (31) has made an appearance in as many World Cup seasons. Kasai was 50 years old when he entered qualification for the individual World Cup event in Sapporo in January 2023.

• Finland (151) is second behind Austria (267) in terms of most men's individual World Cup wins, but Finland's last win (and podium finish) was nine years ago: Anssi Koivuranta's win in Innsbruck on 4 January 2014.

• Austria has won the Nations Cup standings a record 20 times, including in each of the past two seasons. Norway won nine times and finished runners up in 12 seasons.