Four Hills starts: five Poles set for Oberstdorf; Kot vs Wąsek in round one

Five Polish athletes will compete in the opening event of the 74th Four Hills Tournament in Oberstdorf after all advanced from Sunday’s qualification.

Polish qualification results: Kamil Stoch 14th, Maciej Kot 19th, Piotr Żyła 22nd, Kacper Tomasiak 25th, and Paweł Wąsek 32nd. Slovenia’s overall World Cup leader Domen Prevc won the qualification and is considered the leading favorite for the German–Austrian tour.

Round-one KO pairings for the Poles: - Kamil Stoch vs Tomofumi Naitō (JPN) - Maciej Kot vs Paweł Wąsek (POL) - Piotr Żyła vs Artti Aigro (EST) - Kacper Tomasiak vs Niko Kytösaho (FIN)

Format reminder: the first round consists of 25 head‑to‑head pairs seeded from qualification (1 vs 50, 2 vs 49, etc.). All 25 winners plus five "lucky losers" with the best scores among the defeated advance to the final round. Monday’s Oberstdorf competition is scheduled for 16:30.

Hill notes: The official record on Oberstdorf’s Schattenbergschanze (HS137, K‑120) is 143.5 m by Norway’s Sigurd Pettersen (2003). In 2013, American Sarah Hendrickson flew 148 m in training but fell and the mark does not count.

Past winners in Oberstdorf World Cup events include Ryōyū Kobayashi (JPN), Stefan Kraft (AUT), Martin Schmitt (GER) and Dieter Thoma (GER) with three victories each. Polish winners there include Adam Małysz (2007) and Kamil Stoch (2017); Żyła and Dawid Kubacki have also reached the podium.

Stoch has won the overall Four Hills Tournament three times (2017–18, 2021). In 2017/18 he swept all four events, a feat previously achieved only by Sven Hannawald (GER) and Ryōyū Kobayashi (JPN).

Among the current Poles, 18‑year‑old debutant Kacper Tomasiak has been the most consistent this season, missing the final in only one event and finishing fifth twice (Wisła and Engelberg).

Form watch: Domen Prevc strung together five December World Cup wins (two in Wisła, two in Klingenthal, and the first Engelberg event). Kobayashi won the second Engelberg competition and, as a two‑time Four Hills champion (2022, 2024), joins Prevc as a top favorite.

The last Slovenian to win the overall Four Hills was Peter Prevc (2015/16); Domen continues the family legacy, as does their sister Nika. Germany pins hopes on Philipp Raimund and Felix Hoffmann, both podium finishers this season. Under head coach Stefan Horngacher, German fans in Oberstdorf and Garmisch-Partenkirchen hope to end a home drought dating back to Sven Hannawald’s historic sweep in 2001.

Schedule of the remaining Four Hills stages: Garmisch‑Partenkirchen (1 January), Innsbruck (4 January), and Bischofshofen (6 January).