Snowstorm brings early end, shakes up medals in Olympic ski jumping super team

PREDAZZO, Italy — Austria won ski jumping gold in the super team event Monday after the competition’s final round was abandoned with just three jumpers left.

Amidst torrential snow, the judges decided that the wind strength and surface conditions were both dangerous and led to an unlevel playing field for the final jumpers.

Instead, scores were taken from the end of the second round, ensuring the Austrian team of Jan Hörl and Stephan Embacher were crowned champions without the latter having to complete his final jump.

Austria had dominated the competition and looked likely to win almost regardless of their final jumps, but silver medallists Poland were the huge beneficiaries of the judges’ decision.

After an excellent start to the competition, their two jumps in the final round were both disappointing, with fifth place looking to be their likeliest result. Instead, they were elevated back up to silver, ensuring 19-year-old talent Kacper Tomasiak leaves these Olympics with three medals, after winning silver and bronze in the two individual events.

Norway, meanwhile, pipped Germany to bronze by just 0.3 points — a minuscule amount which scales to less than half a metre in jump distance.

This was the first time that the super team event on the large hill has been held at the Olympics, with the event rescuing what had been a disappointing ski jumping meet for Austria.

Hörl and Embacher failed to trouble the podium in either individual event, while last year’s World Cup champion, Daniel Tschofenig, was disqualified from Saturday’s large hill final after his shoes were found to be four millimetres too large, breaking FIS rules.

The only remaining events at the Predazzo Ski Jumping Stadium will be the opening half of the Nordic combined events, with the men’s large hill/10km scheduled for Tuesday, and the team sprint for Thursday.