Norway’s Marius Lindvik was joined by compatriot Halvor Egner Granerud to earn the top two finishes in the men’s large hill qualifying competition on Friday. Lindvik soared to a jump distance of 135m and scored 136.4 points. Granerud placed second, jumping to 133.5m good for 131.6 points.
This is the second time Lindvik finished first in a ski jumping qualifying round at the 2022 Winter Olympics. While he didn't have the farthest jump in the men’s normal hill qualifiers, he scored the highest with 116.7 points. Lindvik performed another first-place qualifying jump in the men’s large hill qualifying round.
The two biggest threats to the Norwegians heading into the final on Saturday will be Austria’s Stefan Kraft and Manuel Fettner. Kraft finished outside the top 3 in fourth place behind Slovenia’s Peter Prevc, but could very well be saving himself for a big jump in the final. Fans saw the same tactic from Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi in the men’s normal hill qualification round when he placed fourth.
Kobayashi was expected to soar to first with ease. He later blew the competition away with a massive jump in the final, good for 275.0 total points.
Karl Geiger of Germany was a large threat to ski jumpers coming into the 2022 Winter Games, but has not been able to jump close enough to the K-point to maintain his status in any of his runs. He placed 15th in the men’s normal hill competition and could not help the German team secure a medal in the mixed team event.
American ski jumpers Decker Dean, Casey Larson, Kevin Bickner and Patrick Gasienica also could not come close to the Norweigians' scores. They ended the qualification round in 38th, 43rd, 45th and 53rd, respectively. Gasienica was eliminated from the large hill competition, falling outside of the top 50 to advance.
Athletes will start the first round of the men’s large hill individual on Feb. 12 at 6:00 a.m. ET and the final will start at 7:00 a.m. ET.