Everything you need to know about the 2018/19 Ski Jumping World Cup season
Ski jumping greats Kamil Stoch and Sara Takanashi dominated the summer Grand Prix events and have their eyes on more glory.
Ski Jumping
The new FIS Ski Jumping World Cup season is upon us, with the opening men's event this Friday (16 November) in Wisla, Poland.
Local favourite Kamil Stoch will be keen to make up for losing out last year to Japan's Junshiro Kobayashi on home slopes as he seeks the early advantage in the overall standings.
Domination
Stoch dominated the 2017/18 season, winning nine events as well as the Four Hills Tournament, Willingen Five, Raw Air Tournament, and Planica7 competitions en route to claiming the overall Crystal Glob. All that in addition to PyeongChang 2018 Olympic large hill gold.
The Pole kept up his form in the summer events, winning three of the nine Grand Prix plastic slope competitions, including at Wisla.
The overall Grand Prix champion is former Nordic combined Olympian Evgeniy Klimov of Russia, who switched exclusively to ski jumping in 2015.
Klimov has only one ski jumping World Cup podium to his name, at Innsbruck in 2016/17, but recorded six podiums on the Grand Prix series this summer season and will attempt to carry his run of results on into the winter circuit this year.
Germany's Olympic champion on the normal hill, Andreas Wellinger, as well as moustachioed double Olympic bronze medallist Robert Johansson of Norway, cannot be counted out either.
And neither can Johansson's compatriot Johann Andre Forfang, who took silver on the normal hill.
Takanashi aims for number five
The women's World Cup season begins a few weeks later, starting in Lillehammer, Norway, on 29 November.
PyeongChang bronze medallist Sara Takanashi is the in-form athlete, having won four of five Grand Prix events over the summer.
The Japanese jumper has won four overall World Cup Crystal Globes, and has won 55 World Cup events, the most by any athlete.
Still only 22, Takanashi can become the sole leader in overall World Cup titles if she wins her fifth this season. She currently shares the record with Matti Nykanen and Adam Malysz.
Her biggest threat is defending champion Maren Lundby, the Norwegian who also holds the Olympic title, while German Olympic silver medallist Katharina Althaus is looking for her first overall crown.
New women's competitions
For the first time, women will take part in the Raw Air Tournament, a series of three back-to-back Large Hill competitions in Norway held in March.
The men's event, which includes a fourth Flying Hill competition, is now in its third season. In Raw Air, qualifying scores (and men's team scores) count towards the final standings too, meaning each jump counts towards the title.
In addition, the last two events on the women's calendar in Russia will form the Bluebird Tour.
Both World Cups will pause between mid-February and the Raw Air Tournament in March for the world championships, which will take place in Seefeld, Austria.
FIS Ski Jumping World Cup calendar 2018/19
Schedule information is subject to change.
Men's Ski Jumping World CupWomen's Ski Jumping World
Cup
16–18 November
Wisla, Poland: Team Large Hill, LargeHill
23–25 November
Ruka,
Finland: Large Hill (two competitions)
30
November–2 December
Nizhny Tagil, Russia: Large
Hill (two competitions)
7–9
December
Titisee-Neustadt, Germany: Team Large Hill, Large
Hill
14–16 December
Engelbert,
Switzerland: Large Hill (two competitions)
Four
Hills Tournament:
29–30
December
Oberstdorf, Germany: Large Hill
31
December–1 January
Garmisch-Partenkirchen,
Germany: Large Hill
3–4
January
Innsbruck, Austria: Large
Hill
5–6 January
Bischofshofen,
Austria: Large Hill
11–13 January
Val
di Fiemme, Italy: Large Hill (two
competitions)
18–20 January
Zakopane,
Poland: Team Large Hill, Large Hill
25–27
January
Sapporo, Japan: Large Hill (two
competitions)
1–3
February
Oberstdorf, Germany: Flying Hill (two
competitions)
8–10 February
Lahti,
Finland: Team Large Hill, Large Hill
15–17
February (Willingen Five)
Willingen,
Germany: Large Hill (two competitions)
Raw Air
Tournament:
8–10
March
Oslo, Norway: Team Large Hill, Large
Hill
11–12 March
Lillehammer,
Norway: Large Hill
13–14
March
Trondheim, Norway: Large
Hill
15–17 March
Vikersund,
Norway: Team Flying Hill, Flying
Hill
21–24 March
(Planica7)
Planica, Slovenia: Flying Hill (two
competitions), Team Flying Hill
29
November–2 December (Lillehammer Triple)
Lillehammer,
Norway: Normal Hill (two competitions), Large
Hill
8–9
December
Titisee-Neustadt, Germany: Large
Hill
14–16 December
Premanon,
France: Normal Hill (two competitions)
11–13
January
Sapporo, Japan: Large Hill (two
competitions)
17–20
January
Zao, Japan: Normal Hill (two competitions), Team
Normal Hill
25–27
January
Rasnov, Romania: Normal Hill (two
competitions)
1–3
February
Hinzenbach, Austria: Normal Hill (two
competitions)
7–10 February
Ljubno,
Slovenia: Normall Hill (two competitions), Team Normal Hill
15–17
February
Oberstdorf, Germany: Large Hill (two
competitions)
Raw Air
Tournament:
9–10
March
Oslo, Norway: Large Hill
11–12
March
Lillehammer, Norway: Large
Hill
13–14 March
Trondheim,
Norway: Large Hill
Bluebird
Tour:
15–17
March
Nizhny Tagil, Russia: Normal Hill (two
competitions)
22–24
March
Chaikovsky, Russia: Normal Hill, Large
Hill