Slovenia's best woman ski jumper powers ahead with Ljubno World Cup double

Slovenian ski jumper Nika Prevc reaffirmed her position as the world's best woman ski jumper by winning another World Cup double on home soil as 15,500 fans turned out in Ljubno at the weekend, the largest crowd yet for a women's ski jumping event, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.

Having won the double in Lake Placid, US the previous weekend, the 19-year-old has notched up four wins for a career total of 16, nine of which she claimed this season.

She increased her lead in the overall standings to 320 points ahead of her closest rival, German Katharina Schmid, who placed 7th and 5th at the two events in Ljubno.

Focus now of World Championship

With ten days to go to Nordic World Ski Championships in Trondheim, defending the Crystal Globe of the season winner is not her priority at the moment.

"My target and everyone's target is now the upcoming World Championships. I can see that I have a big advantage in the Cup standings, but I have to focus on my jumps first," Nika said, down to earth as ever.

With 16 World Cup wins to her name, she is now the second most successful Slovenian ski jumper ever, both men and women. Her brother Peter tops the ranking, having chalked up 24 wins before retiring last year.

"Being the only Slovenian double winner in Ljubno and the second best with 16 wins, I'll just wave my hand. But I'm happy that I pulled off good jumps here and achieved top rankings," she said, admitting that she still has doubts at times.

However, her coach Jurij Tepeš finds that it is her confidence and growing mental and emotional strength and maturity which brings her success.

Hero missed on the podium

Nika Prevc came on top in all rounds in Ljubno, except for the first series of the first event where Norwegian Thea Minyan Bjoerseth set the hill record at 97 metres to beat her.

However, the 21-year-old Norwegian suffered a nasty fall as she landed at 94.5 metres in the final round. She still placed third, but was not on the podium with Prevc and German Selina Freitag, having been taken to hospital.

Doctors in Ljubljana ascertained that Bjoerseth injured her shoulder and knee. She faces further scans once she gets home, but she is expected to need surgery and long-term rehabilitation, which means the season for her is over.

Her teammates did not compete on the second day in Ljubno, not wanting to risk more injuries ahead of the World Championships on their home soil (26 February to 9 March).

Meanwhile, Selina Freitag was the runner-up one again, this time over ten points behind Nika Prevc, while Austrian Lisa Eder placed third.

Ljubno hopes to remain World Cup host

Like Nika, Ljubno ob Savinji in the north of the country has reasserted its position in the sports, being a crowd puller for women's jumping, following in the footsteps of Planica, the hugely popular World Cup finale host for men.

But Ljubno's future as a World Cup venue is uncertain because the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) would like to merge the men's and women's World Cup calendars starting from the 2026/27 season in order to increase interest in women's jumping.

To host men's events, Ljubno would need a bigger hill. The organizers say plans to either enlarge the present HS94 hill or build a new, 120-apparatus next to it, are already afoot.

"This would make us competitive with other ski jumping centres and we could also have men ski jumpers competing. It's very difficult to get into the men's ski jumping calendar. We are aware of that, but we aren't leaving anything to chance," said Rajko Pintar, the head of the organising committee.

They need time to realise their plans tough, so the Slovenian, Austrian and Japanese ski associations will do their best to have the merging of the men's and women's calendars postponed until the 2030/31 season, Pintar said.

Double Olympic champion bids farewell

The Ljubno meet also saw one of the most successful Slovenian woman ski jumpers, Urša Križnar, better known as Urša Bogataj during her active years, bid official farewell to the sport.

The double Olympic champion last competed in Ljubno on 1 January 2023, when she crashed and tore her ACL. Putting her career on hold to start a family, she is now a mum and a coach for young talents.

"We have all known for some time that I will not be jumping anymore, but here in Ljubno I wanted to wave goodbye to the many fans one more time to officially say goodbye from competitions," she said, adding that she is enjoying her coaching job.