Cross-country Ski Sprint: Fall Ends Stölben’s Medal Dream

At the 2025 Nordic Ski World Championships, the sprint medals were awarded without any German involvement. For Jan Stölben, who had been performing strongly, a non-fault fall in the quarterfinals ended his chance for a medal. The accident occurred when the Swiss competitor Janik Riebli fell just ahead of him, leaving Stölben no time to avoid the collision.

Bundestrainer Peter Schlickenrieder expressed his disappointment, stating, "It is absolutely a pity, especially when the fall was due to someone else’s mistake." Despite the setback, the 23-year-old athlete remained proud of his performance in what he described as a very good race.

In the sprint final, gold went to defending champion Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo of Norway, who clinched the victory by finishing 0.67 seconds ahead of Italian Federico Pellegrino, while Finnish Lauri Vuorinen rounded out the podium with a time gap of +4.79 seconds.

Stölben was the only athlete from the German DSV team to make it through the qualification round. He trailed the top favorite Klaebo by 4.05 seconds in his heat and, despite battling till the final stretch, his progress was halted by the fall that ended his hopes of advancing to the semifinals.

"On a day when your form is good and the enormous atmosphere calls for some luck, I didn’t have that today," Stölben said in his interview with ZDF. Overall, the incident ended his dream of winning a medal at the championships.