In the inaugural competition of the Women’s Nordic Combined World Cup Season, Alexa Brabec claimed a spot on the podium in Trondheim, Norway!
Following a strong 24-25 season where Brabec landed in the top 10 World Cup Overall standings, today she landed her first World Cup podium in the Women’s Individual Gundersen Normal Hill HS102/5km.
Brabec jumped a solid 94 meters on the HS102, with her points putting her in 5th place to start the 5km race, 1:12 back from the leader, Norway’s Ingrid Laate. She quickly skied up into a pack of 4 who caught and passed Laate. Brabec and Germany’s Nathalie Armbruster pulled away from that pack and were joined by Norway’s Ida Marie Hagen. The three top women skied together for most of the second lap, and Brabec held her position in third place, stepping upon the podium for the first time in her World Cup career. The social media posts exploded from US fans following @nordiccombinedusa and the US team celebrated alongside their training partners on the Norwegian team.
Brabec reflected on the achievement, “I have been working so hard this summer and without the Olympics on the plate for us, podiuming in a World Cup was my big goal and it feels so insane to have achieved it and at the first World Cup of the season too.”
Another notable result today came in the Men’s Normal Hill Provisional Round, where Niklas Malacinski established a 10th place result - this is the jump score that would be used if there are weather issues that impact the jumping events for the men this weekend. While this result may not be used, it reflects the potential for Niklas to be a top 10 contender.
