Austria's Jan Hoerl and Stephan Embacher were crowned the first Olympic champions in men's super team large hill at the event's nail-biting debut at Milan Cortina 2026.
Three athletes were yet to jump in the suspenseful final round when the judges and jury ruled to cancel the round due to heavy snowfall and wind conditions. Since the weather conditions weren't improving and equal conditions couldn't be guaranteed for each jumper, the medals were rewarded based on the second round's results.
Poland's Kacper Tomasiak and Pawel Wasek slotted into second, while Norway's Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal and Johann Andre Forfang narrowly hung on to bronze with a 0.3-point lead over Germany's Philipp Raimund and Andreas Wellinger.
"We couldn’t celebrate right away after the last jump. It was a little strange, but it’s good that they cancelled the third run and we could celebrate," Tomasiak said. "We are very happy, but I think we still can’t believe that it happened."
In a surprising finish, Slovenians Domen Prevc and Anze Lanisek, who won Olympic gold in the mixed team normal contest on Feb. 10, ended off the podium in 5th. Though the two had a strong start in the first super team large hill round, they lost their touch in the subsequent rounds. Lanisek was slightly late at the takeoff during the second jump, losing crucial air time and distance, while Prevc struggled with speed and lost a few style points for his subpar Telemark landing.
"Unfortunately, we have to take this as it is," Prevc said.
Before the final round was cancelled, the start gate drastically changed by three gates due to heavy sudden snowfall and a change in wind direction. Prevc struggled to adjust to these changes, jumping 124.5 meters and netting only 120.2 points.
He wasn't the only athlete affected. Tomasiak was the final athlete to jump before the final round's results were cancelled. He also flew 124.5 meters, garnering only 104.3 points. He was slow on the in-run due to the heavy snowfall and jumped too early, prompting the judges and jury to cancel the final round.
"We had this sudden, heavy snowfall, wet snowfall, and we were trying to clean the track, but we saw immediately that we lost the speed in the in-run," Sandro Pertile, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation race director, said. "The difference was very [significant]. We also had completely different wind conditions. ...with these conditions it was really unfair to continue."
Hoerl and Embacher are part of the Austrian powerhouse that were heavy medal favorites heading into these Games. But after missing the podium in every ski jumping event and sometimes having difficulty cracking the top ten jumpers during training runs, it was uncertain if Austria would leave with any medals. The pair showed improvement during the individual large hill contest, where they finished 5th and 7th. They were able to build upon their performance to reassert Austria's dominance in the super team event.
"The last 10 days were hard for our team so it was the last chance today," Hoerl said. "We knew that, so we kept focused and we were able to enjoy five good jumps. It’s amazing, unbelievable."
Raimund, who won gold in the men's normal hill on Feb 9., had some of the highest-scoring jumps of the day but was unable to compensate for crucial points lost by Wellinger's relatively short 123.5-meter jump in the second round.
"Today my jumps were on a really high level," Raimund said. "I think finishing fourth place twice [in the mixed team and super team] is quite sad, but overall I exceeded expectations with the gold medal [in normal hill]."
Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi and Ren Nikaido were consistent in their jumps but were outmatched by the Europeans. They placed 6th.
Americans Kevin Bickner and Tate Frantz finished 8th, marking the second time the American jumpers have finished better than 9th since the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics. Bickner and Frantz helped the U.S. place 7th in the mixed team normal hill contest.
Men's Super Team Large Large Hill Medalists
🥇 Austria (Jan Hoerl and Stephan Embacher)
🥈 Poland (Pawel Wasek and Kacper Tomasiak)
🥉 Norway (Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal and Johann Andre Forfang)