Domen Prevc Claims 14th Victory in Planica as Kamil Stoch Prepares for Retirement

Slovenian ski jumper Domen Prevc claimed his 14th victory of the 2025/2026 World Cup season on Friday in Planica, dominating the individual flying hill competition with jumps of 232.5 m and 230.5 m to finish with 471.4 points. Japan's Ren Nikaido took second place, losing 20.1 points to the winner after jumps of 232 m and 233 m. Austria's Daniel Tschofenig rounded out the podium with jumps of 221.5 m and 233.5 m, accumulating 443.5 points. The competition was held from a shortened in-run, as weather conditions had prevented the trial round from taking place. Polish jumpers had little to celebrate, with Piotr Żyła finishing 29th as the only representative of Poland to advance to the second round and score World Cup points.

Żyła drops out of Sunday finale after standings shift Piotr Żyła's 29th-place finish carried consequences beyond the single competition result. In the first round, Żyła jumped 209 m and received 190.7 points, then followed with a 210.5 m jump in the second round for a total of 376 points — a score that proved insufficient to hold his position in the overall standings. Sandro Hauswirth overtook him, pushing Żyła down to 33rd place in the overall World Cup standings. Only the top 30 jumpers present in Slovenia qualify for Sunday's season finale, meaning Żyła will miss the final individual competition of the winter. Aleksander Zniszczoł finished 36th and Kamil Stoch 38th, both failing to advance past the first round after jumps of 194.5 m and 193 m respectively.

33 (overall standing) — Żyła's position, just outside Sunday's top-30 cutoff

Piotr Żyła: 190.7, Aleksander Zniszczoł: 173.4, Kamil Stoch: 170.8

Stoch earns farewell start despite 31st-place ranking Kamil Stoch, who announced this season as his last as a professional ski jumper, will nonetheless compete in Sunday's season finale despite sitting 31st in the overall standings. His participation becomes possible due to the absence of Jan Hoerl and Kacper Tomasiak, which effectively moves Stoch into the eligible bracket. Friday's competition in Planica was one of several farewell appearances the veteran jumper is making at a venue where the season traditionally concludes with three events — individual competitions on Friday and Sunday, and a team competition on Saturday. Stoch's first-round jump of 193 m and 170.8 points was not enough to secure a place in the final 30 on the day. Kamil Stoch is one of the most decorated Polish ski jumpers in history. According to his Wikipedia biography, he is a six-time Olympian and three-time individual Olympic champion, winning twice in 2014 and once in 2018, as well as a team bronze medalist at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Domen Prevc, born June 4, 1999, is described by Wikipedia as one of the most successful ski jumpers of all time, holding two Olympic gold medals, two Nordic World Ski Championships gold medals, and three Ski Flying World Championships gold medals, as well as the overall World Cup title for the 2025/2026 season.

Embacher falls after 240 m jump, escapes serious injury Austrian ski flying competitor Stephan Embacher produced the longest jump of the second round, reaching 240 m, but failed to land it cleanly and fell. The competition was interrupted for several minutes following the fall. Embacher got up on his own and was not seriously injured, according to reports from the venue. Despite receiving weak style marks as a consequence of the fall, he finished 11th overall. At the top of the overall World Cup standings, Domen Prevc extended his lead after adding another 100 points, with Ryoyu Kobayashi remaining second on 1188 (points) — Kobayashi's total in the overall World Cup standings and Daniel Tschofenig third. Fourth-placed Ren Nikaido trails Tschofenig by just 14 points, leaving the battle for the final podium position open ahead of Sunday's season finale.