Slovenia’s fans had waited long enough. Long enough meaning three days.
First, gold medal favorite Nika Prevc landed in silver in the women’s normal hill on Saturday — commendable, for sure, but not enough for this crowd and not enough for her. On Monday, her brother, Domen Prevc, another favorite, landed in sixth.
But on Tuesday night, Slovenia reminded everyone why it is one of ski jumping’s most dominant nations, winning gold in the mixed team normal hill with a team consisting of Nika, Domen, Nika Vodan and Anže Lanišek.
Norway, which entered the second round ranked third, snuck ahead of Japan in the final jump for silver, with Japan winning bronze.
Slovenia led by 9.2 points over Japan after the first round of jumps, with Norway the only other country in medal contention. Though Norway’s Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal produced the night’s longest jump, 104.0 meters, Slovenia was far more consistent, led by Lanišek bouncing back from disappointment in Monday night’s individual competition to leap 102.0m.
With two rounds remaining, Slovenia knew that solid jumps from the Prevc siblings would bring home their first gold of the games. Having been in tears after missing out on gold in the women’s normal hill, Nika produced a jump of 98.5m to extend Slovenia’s lead, ensuring that her brother only needed to produce the bare minimum to give both siblings their first Olympic gold.
Domen, competing away from his favoured large hill, duly obliged. His jump of 102m gave Slovenia a 30.9-point lead over silver medalists Norway, who overhauled Japan after world record holder Ryōyū Kobayashi blinked with his second-round jump.
Slovenian fans cheer Tuesday during the mixed team event. Led by star siblings Nika and Domen Prevc, the Slovenians won their first ski jumping gold of these Games. (Javier SORIANO / AFP via Getty Images)
On landing, Domen skied into his sister’s arms — ensuring that Slovenia defended ots title from 2022 in Beijing, where older brother Peter was part of the team.
Standing in parts of Tuesday’s crowd, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were in Ljubljana, the capital; or maybe Planica, the mountain town that hosts World Cup ski jumping events; the Slovenian border is only a few hours’ drive away. There were shirts reading, “I feel very Olympic today;” top hats in white, blue and red; scarves saying, “I feel sLOVEnia;” and many, many flags.
“It’s incredible,” Lanišek said. “After yesterday’s performance, it couldn’t go any worse. First of all, I’d like to (thank) the whole coaching staff, they have trust and belief in me. It’s perfect. Yesterday, the pressure was in my head. It was like a worm. I tried to stay calm. It’s sport, sometimes you get your reward, sometimes you don’t.”