Geiger wins Olympic normal hill gold

Vinzenz Geiger is the first Nordic Combined gold medalist at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing (CHN). 

After the Ski Jumping competition, Ryota Yamamoto from Japan was in the lead at the Zhangjiakou HS 106 today. 

In sunny conditions the Japanese jumped the furthest distance of the day with 108 meters (133 pts) in the afternoon at the Zhangjiakou HS 106 and took the lead. Therefore, he was the first one to start into the 10 km at the National Cross-Country Skiing Centre this evening. 

Rank 2 after jumping went to Lukas Greiderer from Austria, who landed at 103.5 meters (123.4 pts) and went into the course 38 seconds after Yamamoto. 

Julian Schmid (103 mts, 123.1 pts) placed third with a 40 second backlog to the leader. 

His German team mate Johannes Rydzek (104 mts, 122.2 pts) placed 4th and went into the challenging course 43 seconds behind the leader from Japan. 
Overall World Cup leader and top favorite Johannes Lamparter from Austria took the 5th rank after Ski Jumping (100 mts, 116.9 pts). 

Yamamoto couldn’t keep up with the high speed of his pursuers and lost most of his head start already on the first kilometer. 
Greiderer led the group, reduced the gap on the second lap and took the lead after 2.5 km. Julian Schmid (+0.4 sec) and Johannes Rydzek (+0.7 sec) were in second and third place at this point, while Yamamoto fell further and further behind.

Meanwhile, in the second group of pursuers, Joergen Graabak (29 sec) and Vinzenz Geiger (+29.9 sec) fought their way up.

In the last lap, in which Rydzek started as the leader, Julian Schmid (+18.4 sec) collapsed on the penultimate climb and had to let his teammate and Greiderer go.

At this point, Geiger, who was on 11th place after Ski Jumping, and Graabak had already reduced the gap to 16 seconds and were getting closer and closer to the leaders.
On the last climb they finally caught up with Rydzek, who couldn’t keep up with the high pace.

In an exciting finish sprint, Geiger finally prevailed against Graabak (+0.8 sec) and Greiderer (+6.6 sec). Johannes Lamparter (+9 sec) finished the race in 5th place.

Results: Men Individual Gundersen NH/10km SJ – Zhangjiakou, 9.2.22
Overall Results: Men Individual Gundersen NH/10km – Zhangjiakou, 9.2.22