October 14, 2025
They’re measuring the mountains again. In Slovenia, officials brought out the rulers, the calculators, and probably some very brave surveyors to announce that Planica will grow a fresh set of wings. With €2.69 million and a new FIS allowance for a slightly steeper swoop, engineers say the Letalnica hill could send humans gliding out toward 270 meters—about the length of a good neighborhood gossip. They insist it’ll be controlled, sanctioned, and safe, which is exactly what you say before someone flies past the hot-dog stand. Planica’s faithful point to Domen Prevc’s 254.5 m as the official high-water mark, while politely nodding at that Icelandic 291 m flight and saying, “Yes, dear, but that was… different.”
- See how the hill gets a makeover at Planica to be modernized: Letalnica upgrades enabling jumps up to 270 meters [/ski-jumping/planica-letalnica-upgrade-to-allow-270-meter-ski-flying/].
- Or admire the ambition, again, in the twin dispatches promising record-ready Planica [/ski-jumping/planica-ski-flying-hill-rebuild-aims-for-world-record/] and [/ski-jumping/planica-ski-flying-hill-expansion-world-record-aim/].
And since you can’t build a bigger hill without telling your neighbors, there’s also a travel brochure slipped under the door reminding everyone that Planica isn’t just big—it’s the biggest, with a Nordic Centre that hosts 25,000 jumping days a year and the occasional astronaut rummaging through the wax room for reasons we don’t ask about. If you’re in Carinthia, they say, just pop over. Bring skis. Or a parachute.
- A friendly guided tour of the “largest ski jumping center in Europe” [/ski-jumping/planica-nordic-centre-europes-largest-ski-jumping-hub/].
Meanwhile in the domestic arts, Austria’s Stefan Kraft has been practicing two kinds of timing: take-off and diaper. With a due date of December 2 circled in thick, loving marker, he’s planning his winter like a man who knows the split times to the maternity ward. Ruka might be skipped, Wisła and Klingenthal are maybes, Engelberg looks like the re-entry point—because even the Four Hills have to make room for one little bundle of joy who will arrive with a stronger scream than any wind at the outrun.
- Kraft’s meticulous baby-plan-meets-World-Cup schedule [/ski-jumping/stefan-kraft-baby-plans-ruka-wisla-klingenthal-engelberg-2025-26/].
On the airwaves, Poland decided that if a ski jumper leaves the inrun in Wisła and nobody broadcasts it, it still counts—but why risk it? TVP will carry Poland-hosted World Cup events for the next five seasons, with TVN/Eurosport also on the dial. That’s redundancy you can love: two channels, one flight, and your aunt texting you on both to say “Nice telemark.”
- The urgent (and reassuring) Polish broadcast news [/ski-jumping/tvp-to-broadcast-poland-hosted-ski-jumping-world-cup-events-for-next-five-seasons/].
Cross-country brought us both heart and heartache. Flora Dolci, 26 on Thursday and unlucky on Friday, suffered a serious paragliding crash, underwent surgery, and will miss the 2026 Olympics. The doctors say the worst was avoided; she can walk; six months to full capacity is the hope. The team goes on to camp in Prémanon and Bessans while saving her a spot by the window when she’s ready. All of France will be checking the sky a little more often.
- Dolci’s recovery path and season-ending setback [/cross-country-skiing/flora-dolci-vertebra-fracture-surgery-out-of-milan-cortina-2026/].
In biathlon, Franziska Preuß discovered her hand had more broken pieces than first advertised—surprise souvenirs from a fall at German Championships. She’s rehabbing like a metronome, hopeful but not reckless about Munich’s rollerski debut. November is the true target. And amid all that, she spoke of the loss of her friend Laura Dahlmeier with the kind of quiet that makes a stadium go still, even when the wind is obnoxious.
- Preuß’s setback, resolve, and remembrance [/biathlon/preuss-hand-injury-puts-munich-rollerski-start-in-doubt-aims-for-world-cup-return/].
Elsewhere, policy tried to put on skis and slipped. The International Ski Federation’s big “sex testing across all disciplines” announcement turned out not to be a finished policy at all, just a direction of travel with no skis on. Next Council meeting October 21. After that, winter. The athletes will keep training while the lawyers warm their hands by the committee fire.
- The policy that wasn’t—yet [/cross-country-skiing/fis-backtracks-on-sex-testing-policy-cross-country-skiing-svt-sport/].
And to keep the coffee shop arguments lively, Ski Classics floated a new points-paying sprint inside its long-distance world, and Hanna Falk, speaking for endurance purists everywhere, said, “Careful now, or you’ve invented a different sport.” Which is how revolutions start—quietly, with someone pointing at a 200-meter dash and saying, “That’s lovely, dear, but where’s the hill?”
- Falk’s gentle but pointed skepticism [/cross-country-skiing/hanna-falk-questions-ski-classics-sprint-points-decision/].
Some days in Nordic sport, the world gets bigger—a hill grows, a broadcast net widens, a family does too. Other days, it gets closer—a teammate injured, a policy paused, a friend remembered. Either way, the snow will fall, the skis will glide, and somewhere in Slovenia an engineer will say, “Two seventy? Yes, we measured,” while a coach in Austria checks the flight schedule to the delivery room and nods like a happy man who’s already packed the diaper bag next to his ski bag.
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