Ski Jumper Schmid in Third Place After Jumping

Ski Jumper Schmid in Third Place After Jumping

In the fight for gold at the World Championships, Vinzenz Geiger is still in the race. Jarl Magnus Riiber took the lead.

In medal contention: Vinzenz Geiger

The German kombinierer are competing at the Nordic Ski World Championships in Trondheim one day after winning silver in the mixed-team event for gold in the individual normal hill. Vice-world champion Julian Schmid stands in third place after jumping 102.0 m and will head into the 7.5 km ski race with a 12-second deficit behind Norway's record world champion Jarl Magnus Riiber (103.5 m) starting from 16:00 (ZDF and Eurosport).

"I was very nervous, but now the jump is done. Now it’s all about fighting in the track," Schmid said after the competition in a jumping stadium already well filled: "It’s going to be a relatively large group. It’s only about the top three places; everything else doesn't matter."

Olympic champion Vinzenz Geiger jumped just half a meter shorter than his Oberstdorf clubmate but wobbled a bit during the landing. As the sixth with a 26-second deficit, he still has a chance at the title.

Six-time world champion Johannes Rydzek, who is competing in his ninth World Championship and first participated in Oslo in 2011, missed a better starting position by placing 11th (+40 seconds) but still hopes to progress as a strong runner. Rydzek, who won gold in 2015 and 2017, was the last German world champion on the normal hill. The team Olympic runner-up Manuel Faißt did not stand a chance for a medal, finishing 22nd (+1:05 minutes).

Riiber, who secured his ninth gold medal in the mixed team event on Friday with a victory over Germany, has won the title on the small hill three times in a row. As a first kombinierer, he could capture his fifth individual gold. No one has achieved four golden consecutive wins in the same competition; historically, only Norwegian Johann Gröttumsbraten (1924 to 1932) and East German Ulrich Wehling (1972 to 1980) have won four titles on the normal hill with breaks.

For the first time at a World Championship, the normal hill competition will be held in a compact format. In this format, the time gaps for the ski race are predetermined, so the second place jumper starts six seconds after the winner – regardless of how large their deficit was on the hill. This format favors strong runners even though the race distance is only 7.5 km instead of 10 km in the track.