Naeslund back on top, Hronek gets first World Cup win in wild fashion

The first two World Cup big finals at Kopaonik on Friday could not be more contrasting, with Sandra Naeslund (SWE) resuming business as usual while Tim Hronek (GER) won a wild race in which he crashed for his first victory.

Overall World Cup points leader Naeslund celebrated a record-extending 45th individual World Cup win, with Jade Grillet Aubert (FRA) 0.71 seconds back, Marielle Berger Sabbatel (FRA) in third and Hannah Schmidt (CAN) fourth.

It was a wire-to-wire victory as Naeslund burst out of the gates first and widened her lead throughout the course. It gave Sweden its 100th World Cup Ski Cross win overall, with only Canada securing more victories (110).

Reece Howden (CAN) was the first to cross the men’s big final finish line but was given a yellow card for line deviation, resulting in a fourth-place finish.

Florian Wilmsmann (GER) was quickest out of the gate, with Kevin Drury (CAN) 0.06 seconds behind. But Howden, a further 0.03 seconds adrift at the start, quickly surged ahead. As Wilmsmann challenged Howden in Intermediate 1, they came into contact, Wilmsmann falling and taking out compatriot Hronek and Drury behind him.

Hronek won as he was the only other skier who passed the gate on the roller where the crash happened. Drury and Wilmsmann were tied in the heat, with the qualification results becoming the tiebreaker. Drury qualified third while Wilmsmann was 11th thus Drury took second place.

It was Hronek’s first World Cup win, which he deemed as “a bit of payback for the Olympics last week”, when he was “not so lucky”.

He dedicated his eighth podium finish to Drury.

“It’s very sad, man,” he said of Drury, who looked to have been injured from the crash. “He’s such a nice skier and I know he will end his career at the end of this season.”

Wilmsmann also had Drury in his thoughts.

“It was a racing incident, tight battle, really unlucky, especially Tim and Kevin also crashed because of the result of my crash,” he said. “We just hope Kevin is doing alright.”

The men’s small final featured two Milano Cortina 2026 medalists — champion Simone Deromedis (ITA) and bronze medalist Alex Fiva (SUI) — as well as Beijing 2022 gold medalist Ryan Regez (SUI). Fiva took fifth place, Florian Fischer (GER) was sixth while Regez and Deromedis were seventh and eighth respectively.

Marielle Thompson (CAN) won the three-strong women’s small final ahead of Fanny Smith (SUI) and Jole Galli (ITA), with Katrin Ofner (AUT) disqualified after her semifinal.

Newly minted Olympic gold medalist Daniela Maier (GER) was pipped to a photo finish in the quarterfinals, with Grillet Aubert joining Galli in progressing.

Naeslund bounces back

Naeslund took bronze at Milano Cortina and, by her lofty standards, endured a title “drought” of four races without a win. Her 25th place in the opening weekend of the Val di Fassa weekend was her lowest finish in a World Cup race since her 32nd-place finish in Grasgehren/Allgäu in February 2013. She was fourth in the second race at Val di Fassa, as she was in Veysonnaz, after winning the first.

But she put on a show as Kopaonik hosted World Cup races for the first time, flying through the 915-meter course boasting a 130-meter vertical drop.

For Grillet Aubert, the course’s start was the highlight, as she celebrated her fifth World Cup podium.

She said: “It’s really important for me because this is my first podium since my injury. I’m happy to come back in the race finally. I hope it’s the start of a new season for me.”

Berger Sabbatel got her job done at the first time of asking, with another day of action to come tomorrow.


She said of her third-place finish: “It’s good because France just gave me a good goal to reach — to have at least one podium in each country we race. I have not many chances here so it’s good that it’s done today.”