Norway's Jens Luraas Oftebro won a second-straight Nordic combined Olympic title after an explosive surge on the penultimate climb in the 10km cross-country segment of the men's individual large hill contest at Milan Cortina 2026. Luraas Oftebro also won the normal hill event on Feb. 11, asserting Norway's dominance in the sport.
"It means a lot to win my second gold medal. I had dreamed about one, but to win two is something very special," Luraas Oftebro said. "My dream was to win the one gold [in normal hill]. To do it again on the large hill, with huge gaps, is an amazing feeling for me."
Austria's Johannes Lamparter, who won silver in the normal hill contest, came in 2nd yet again after leading the field for half of the race. Ilkka Herola of Finland took bronze — 8.9 seconds behind Lamparter.
As a stronger skier, Lamparter gave himself a strong foundation as the second-ranked athlete after the ski jumping segment. In the cross-country section, he quickly overtook Japan's Ryota Yamamoto, who had a 16-second lead as the first-ranked jumper, to be the sole leader of the race.
The weather conditions worked in the athletes' favor: the hard, compact snow resulted in a much icier, faster course that the skiers are used to — a stark difference from the mushy, soft snow that slowed the athletes down during the normal hill contest.
"I feel like every condition suits me, but today, it was easier to ski normally," Lens Oftebro said. "So it was more what we are used to, but it was faster and a bit more difficult to get the gaps. I tried, but it was more difficult."
Lamparter's strategy was to distance himself as much as possible early on but it wasn't enough. Luraas Oftebro, one of the strongest skiers in the field alongside Lamparter, was able to overcome his 22-second time deficit from the ski jumping portion to catch up to Lamparter shortly before the midpoint of the race. Herola and Norway's Andreas Skoglund closely followed. Skoglund finished 4th.
"Of course it’s disappointing. I had hoped for a medal but I wasn’t strong enough today," Skoglund said.
The four were tightly packed until halfway through the third lap, when Skoglund dropped off. He was distantly followed by a chase pack consisting of Luraas Oftebro's older brother, Einar Luraas Oftebro, Finnish Eero Hirvonen, Kristjan Ilves of Estonia and Thomas Rettenegger of Austria, who were around 40 seconds behind the leaders. They later finished 6th, 5th, 7th and 11th, respectively.
"I needed really good legs to be able to catch up. I skied with Eero the first two laps and then [Jens Luraas Oftebro and Herola] attacked, and both Eero and I were kind of dead. Then we tried to minimize the loss and fight for the fifth place."
Heading into the second half of the final lap, Herola struggled to keep up with Jens and Lamparter. The pair were neck-and-neck until Jens fiercely pulled ahead at the penultimate climb. Lamparter couldn't keep up after powering through the first half of the course to try to gain distance.
"I was so tired. My only goal was to keep it together until the finish line," Herola said. "I knew I didn’t have anything to fight with against Jens and Johannes, but they had their own game going on there. ... I was already dead because I had to start so fast."
"When I went in the second-last climb, it was very good, so I’m really happy that I could come into the finish straight alone," Jens said of his finish.
"It was a tough one. Of course Jens was on his own in the last lap, but I felt really happy about the rest of the race," Lamparter said. "Jens was just a bit too strong today, so congrats to him."
Four-time Olympic medalist Akito Watabe of Japan ended 19th in his last individual race at his sixth and final Olympics.
Germans Vinzenz Geiger, Johannes Rydzek and Julian Schmid surprised Predazzo by not cracking the top 10 in the ski jumping segment. Rydzek led the trio by ranking 15th after the ski jumping portion. They were all able to improve their rankings in the cross-country race, finishing 9th, 10th and 12th, respectively.
Rettenegger's brother, Stefan Rettenegger, is a stronger ski jumper, but finished 11th in that portion. He was able to make up some time to boost to 8th after the race.
Niklas Malacinski led the U.S. to a 13th-place finish, keeping pace with his 12th-place ranking in the ski jumping segment. He bettered teammate Ben Loomis' 17th-place finish at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Loomis placed 27th this time.
Nordic Combined Individual Normal Hill Medalists
🥇Jens Luraas Oftebro (NOR)
🥈Johannes Lamparter (AUT)
🥉Ilkka Herola (FIN)
Nordic combined continues with the men's team large hill event on Thursday, Feb. 19. The ski jumping segment begins at 4 a.m. ET, followed by the cross-country race at 8 a.m. ET. It can be seen live on NBCOlympics.com and Peacock.