“I want to be there”: Stefan Kraft fine-tunes baby plan amid season scheduling

Austrian ski jumping champion Stefan Kraft faces a unique start to the 2025/26 winter: he and his wife Marisa are expecting their first child on December 2. Speaking to media in Salzburg, Kraft emphasized that he “of course wants to be at the birth,” and is working on plans that could include skipping the Ruka World Cup stop or arranging sponsor-supported logistics to fly home at short notice.

The World Cup round in Ruka, Finland, on November 29–30 is the third stop of the season. Kraft confirmed he will take a short baby break, saying that skipping five weeks is unrealistic, but he will likely miss one to two weeks. That could mean sitting out the four individual competitions in Wisła and Klingenthal, with a planned return at Engelberg (Dec. 20/21), traditionally the final tune‑up before the Four Hills Tournament.

Kraft also offered an update on his Olympic‑season preparation. After minor early‑summer issues, training has gone according to plan. Physically he feels strong; he says the last bit of race sharpness is still missing but typically arrives after two or three hard sessions. At present, he rates it as a “fifty‑fifty” chance of finding his ideal take‑off timing immediately, and aims to raise that to three out of four by the start of the season.