Alexa Brabec rounded out the Nordic Combined World Cup in Ramsau, Austria, with a second career silver medal, racing to silver in the individual Gundersen normal hill HS98/5k on Dec. 20 for her second podium finish of the weekend.

Brabec began the day's competition with a 93-meter jump (roughly 302 feet), landing her a second-place start for the cross-country race, 1:06 minutes behind Norway's Ingrid Laate. She defended her position the whole way through the race, finishing just 18.7 seconds behind Norway's Ida Marie Hagen for the silver.

Brabec began the stop in Ramsau with another impressive performance, finishing second in the mass start normal hill/5km for her first-ever World Cup silver. With her second medal of the weekend, she rose from third overall to second in World Cup standings. Hagen, who has won three of her four events this season, is the World No. 1.

“It was so cool to be in second again. It was definitely a good fight on the course, and I am so happy to finish the weekend off like this," Brabec told Nordic Combined USA after the race.

The 21-year-old has made the podium in three of her four events so far this season, opening her 2025-26 campaign with a bronze medal that busted the United States' five-year-long World Cup podium drought in Nordic combined. In her fourth appearance, she placed 4th.

Teammate Annika Malacinski placed 11th in both of the races in Ramsau, marking three top-15 finishes for her this season. 

Both Brabec's and Malacinski's results represent nearly an unprecedented level of success for a U.S. Nordic combined squad which historically has struggled on the international level. The United States has not earned an Olympic medal of any color since 2010, when the team exploded for four podium finishes (1 gold, 3 silvers), marking the first time an American Nordic combined athlete had landed on the Olympic podium.

However, Nordic combined is the only Olympic sport, winter or summer, which does not include a women's event. The International Olympic Committee is expected to make a decision regarding whether or not to include the event on the 2030 Olympic program sometime after the 2026 Games in Milan Cortina.

After a brief hiatus for the winter holiday season, the World Cup will continue in Otepaa, Estonia, Jan. 8-11.