‘Magnificent’ Prevc claims Oberstdorf victory in Four Hills Tournament

Dec 29, 2025·Ski Jumping

Domen Prevc (SLO) - FIS/ActionPress/Julia Piatkowskav

World Cup leader Domen Prevc (SLO) delivered an impressive performance to win the opening event of the Four Hills Tournament in Oberstdorf, Germany, on Monday. Living up to his status as the favorite, Prevc secured a commanding 17.5-point victory over last year’s Four Hills overall champion, Daniel Tschofenig (AUT). Felix Hoffmann (GER) rounded out the podium in third place.

Timi Zajc (SLO), who initially tied for second with Tschofenig, was disqualified for wearing an inappropriate suit.

Prevc became the first-ever Slovenian male ski jumper to win in Oberstdorf. “I finally managed to break the curse for Slovenian men here”, Prevc laughed afterward. “I heard this is the first win for a Slovenian guy in Oberstdorf. I am super happy I managed to do two good jumps.”

The 26-year-old had never finished on the podium in a Four Hills event before. His best Four Hills result up until today was a fourth place in Bischofshofen in 2016/17, when he also entered the tournament as the yellow bib wearer. “You can see how flushed I am”, Prevc laughed afterward. “Things may feel or look so easy, but on the other hand a thousand thoughts run through my head. I just stay focused, and today I felt amazing.”

The Slovenian is aiming to become the third Slovenian male ski jumper to win the Four Hills tournament, following Primoz Peterka in 1997 and his older brother Peter Prevc in 2016.

Prevc held a 8.3 point lead over Jan Hoerl (AUT) after the first round, where he travelled an impressive 141.5m for a total of 162.2 points. He extended his advantage even further in the second round, where a distance of 140.0m earned him 154.4 points, bringing his combined total to 316.7 points.

With that, he finished 17.5 points ahead of Tschofenig (299.2), who moved up from fourth to second thanks to his second-round jump.

Perfect 'comeback' for Tschofenig

“This is absolutely amazing,” Tschofenig said. “After the difficult past few weeks on the tour, to come back like this is incredible. This was one of my best competitions in a long time. I’m really satisfied,” he added.

The defending Four Hills champion did not want to make any predictions, however. “The tour is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.”

The Austrian does know, though, that catching up with Prevc will be difficult. “He makes no mistakes; he nails jump after jump. We almost have to hope that he makes an error.”

Home favorite Hoffmann also gained a few places, moving from sixth to third in the final round. “Today was really cool for me,” Hoffmann said. “I think it will give me a boost for Garmisch. It was a great competition. It’s also really fun to be able to fight at the front. Apart from Domen, everything is close together. I’m also satisfied with both of my jumps.”

Hoerl (AUT) finished in fourth place, just ahead of Philipp Raimund (GER). Three-time Four Hills overall champion Ryoyu Kobayashi (JPN) came in sixth. The Japanese star had a disappointing first round, placing 10th, and although he fought back strongly in the second round, it was not enough to reach the podium.

How to win the Four Hills Tournament

As with other World Cup events, the field needs to come through qualifying to reach the first round ‘proper’. However, that is where the similarities ended, for now.

The top 50 are then placed into a series of duels, with the top ranked athlete, facing the lowest ranked qualifier, and so on throughout the field.

The winner of each duel would progress, as would five ‘lucky losers’ who recorded points scores which ranked among the top five non-automatic qualifiers, from their first round.

The scores from the first round would be retained and added to the second round, this time without duels, to determine the overall standings.

The points total from each of the contests during the 2025/26 Four Hills Tournament will be combined to determine who becomes this season’s overall winner and takes home the Golden Eagle title.