Prevc warms up for Worlds with landmark World Cup win
Feb 23, 2025·Ski Jumping
Defending Crystal Globe champion Nika Prevc (SLO) became only the third woman in history to win six-successive FIS Ski Jumping World Cup event after completing the Hinzenbach (AUT) double, in the final contest before the Nordic World Ski Championships.
The Slovenian teenager, who won for the first time in her career on the Aigner-Schanze hill on Saturday, took her season tally to 11 victories 24 hours later, after delivering two typically strong jumps.
Prevc attained a combined total of 244 points, with Selina Freitag (GER) continuing her recent impressive form with 241.5 points, to take second place.
Rounding off the podium places, with her first top-three result in over a year, was Abigail Strate (CAN) who attained 226.6, to head off the challenge of home favourites Lisa Eder (AUT) and Jacqueline Seifriedsberger (AUT) in fourth and fifth respectively.
Prevc now has total of 1533 points in the overall World Cup standings, which puts her 455pts ahead of nearest rival Katharina Schmid (GER) in second.
The Slovenian needs just 45pts from the remainder of the season to successfully defend the title she claimed in 2023/24, but is now focused on trying to attain the first senior World Championships title of her career in Trondheim (NOR).
“I think (this result) it means that I can jump good and that I just need to trust myself and try to be more relaxed on the hill,” she said after her latest victory.
“I think that’s the way how I will deal with the pressure and hope to do the best I can (at Trondheim 2025).”
After recording her tenth World Cup victory of the season on Saturday, few expected anything other than further success for the seemingly unstoppable Slovenian Prevc (SLO) on the second day of competition in Hinzenbach.
However, there were a host of athletes hoping to take advantage of the absence of the Norwegian athletes, who were continuing preparations for the World Championships back in their homeland.
Defending World champion Alexandria Loutitt (CAN) was another who decided against competing in Austria, but that did not mean the Canadian team would be without a strong medal contender.
Over 13 months may have passed since Strate (CAN) had last placed on the podium, but she impressed the spectators surrounding the HS90 Hill in the opening round with a jump of 86.5m which scored 110.8 points and would put her third.
While Prevc may be the lead athlete in the women’s FIS Ski Jumping World Cup at present, Freitag (GER) is without question second on the list, having attained four successive podium finishes in recent weeks.
The 23-year-old two-time World team championship gold medalist, who was second on Saturday, delivered further evidence of her individual medal-winning potential come Trondheim 2025 with another strong first round performance.
Freitag delivered the longest jump of round one, with 90.5m, but Prevc’s 90m effort saw her edge ahead with a lead of 4.7pts after attaining higher style marks from the judges.
There was a similar theme in the second round as well.
While the home fans hoped Eder (AUT) could move on from fourth in the opening round and add to Seifriedsberger’s third-place finish on Saturday, she would ultimately fall short of the desired target, retaining her result at the conclusion of competition.
Seifriedsberger would move up two places from seventh to fifth, with Nozomi Maruyama (JPN) making the greatest progress, from 24th to 18th.
At the top-end of the table Strate’s jump of 87.5m was the furthest of the round at that stage, confirming her a landmark podium place, before attention turned to the battle between the leading two athletes.
“It is (a confidence boost), it’s perfect timing for me,” said Strate.
“I’ve seen things start to trend up, I was 14th, 14th, 12th, 8th, so I told my parents yesterday that today I had to be second, so I’m one place off, but it’s still a good result.”
Freitag’s 88m jump put a little pressure on her rival, but as so often this season the Slovenian was able to perform under pressure and confirm another victory after her effort of 87.5m put her 2.5 points ahead of the German’s overall total.
“I’m really happy with the results at the last competitions and I hope I can show it at the World Championships,” said Freitag.
“It was close to Nika (Prevc), but I gave it my all and second best is also good.”
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26 February to 9 March in Trondheim (NOR)
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