STA, 27 March 2022 - Marius Lindvik of Norway is the winner of the last Ski Jumping World Cup event of the season in Slovenia's Planica on Sunday, while Ryoyu Kobayashi of Japan finished 8th to secure his overall win in the World Cup. Slovenia's Žiga Jelar was 6th, enough for him to win the small crystal globe for the best ski flyer of the season.

 Lindvik scored 455.1 points in the two runs to win the last event of the season in front of some 12,500 spectators, followed by Yukiya Sato of Japan (446.8) and Slovenia's Peter Prevc (438.6).

This was the third podium finish for the Slovenian team captain Prevc in as many events at Planica this weekend. "The last event was really exceptional, all lads were jumping very far," he told the national broadcaster TV Slovenija.

Four other Slovenians followed Prevc in the 4th to 7th place - Timi Zajc was fourth with 437.2 points and Anže Lanišek (435.7), who scored his personal best of 244.5 metres, was fifth.

Žiga Jelar (435.2), who won the small crystal globe for the best ski flyer of the season, was sixth and Cene Prevc (425.4), who also scored his personal best and today's best jump of 246 metres, was seventh.

Ryoyu Kobayashi of Japan finished 8th to secure the large crystal globe for the overall winner in the World Cup (1,621 points), defending his title from the previous season. Karl Geiger of Germany (1,515) finished second.

Jelar, who was followed in the overall ski flying standings by his compatriot Timi Zajc, said that "I'm probably still not aware of what we've managed to accomplish, but I'm grateful to be a part of this team."

In the Nations Cup, Slovenia finished second, behind the Austrians, who scored 47 more points than Slovenia overall to earn their first Nations Cup win in the last eight years.

"We've finished 47 points short, so we will have to start collecting points earlier next time if we want more. We've shown some excellent jumps, great form lately. I hope that next year all of us will raise it to another level," said Lanišek.

The 2021/22 season was the first in history in which three Slovenians finished in the top 10 overall - Lanišek was seventh (936 points), Zajc eighth (711 points) and Cene Prevc tenth (657).

* Results of Sunday's World Cup event at Planica:
 1 Marius Lindvik (NOR)        455.1 pts (241.5/245.5)
 2 Yukiya Sato (JAP)           446.8 (236.5/242.5)
 3 Peter Prevc (SLO)           438.6 (235.5/240.0)
 4 Timi Zajc (SLO)             437.2 (233.0/240.0)
 5 Anže Lanišek (SLO)          435.7 (231.0/244.5)
 6 Žiga Jelar (SLO)            435.2 (239.0/232.0)
 7 Cene Prevc (SLO)            425.4 (241.0/246.0)
 8 Ryoyu Kobayashi (JAP)       423.7 (235.5/230.5)
 9 Dawid Kubacki (POL)         422.5 (231.0/235.0)
10 Michael Hayböck (AUT)       421.7 (226.0/244.5)
...
20 Lovro Kos (SLO)             389.4 (219.5/227.0)

* Overall standings in the 2021/22 season (28 events):
 1 Ryoyu Kobayashi (JAP)       1,621
 2 Karl Geiger (GER)           1,515
 3 Marius Lindvik (NOR)        1,231
 4 Halvor Egner Granerud (NOR) 1,227
 5 Stefan Kraft (AUT)          1,069
 6 Markus Eisenbichler (GER)     950
 7 Anže Lanišek (SLO)            936
 8 Timi Zajc (SLO)               711
 9 Jan Hörl (AUT)                662
10 Cene Prevc (SLO)              657

* Nations Cup in the 2021/22 season (28 events):
 1 Austria         5,789
 2 Slovenia        5,742
 3 Germany         5,389
 4 Norway          5,360
 5 Japan           4,077
 6 Poland          2,321
 7 Switzerland       881
 8 Russia            684

STA, 26 March 2022 - Slovenia's Žiga Jelar, Peter Prevc, Timi Zajc and Anže Lanišek won the last Ski Jumping World Cup team event of the season held in Slovenia's Planica on Saturday before some 20,000 spectators. Slovenia led already after the first series, 15.6 points ahead of Norway.

Norway, whose Halvor Egner Granerud managed a jump of 242 metres, came second as Lanišek did not shy away of Granerud's challenge and jumped 237.5 metres.

With 1,601.1 points, the Slovenian team outperformed Norway by 24.2 points and by 56.9 points third-placed Austria, whose Stefan Kraft put on a great performance.

The Slovenian men jumpers brought Slovenia the 84th World Cup victory, of which 72 have been individual wins and 12 team wins.

Peter Prevc has been part of 12 winning teams, and is also a Slovenian record holder in individual event wins, managing as many as 23.

"I'm glad that the boys have jumped well, but we shouldn't take such achievements for granted," chief coach Robert Hrgota told public broadcaster TV Slovenija.

He said "that's been a lot of hard work throughout the season to come to such successes."

Lanišek said "there had been a lot of pressure with everyone saying to us 'win, win!' These are the successes we live for, so we work hard and we'll always remember these moments."

"Each of us did his best and I'm thrilled. I think we're living our dreams. This is phenomenal!" said Jelar, who in the first group jumped after Norway's Marius Lindvik, the ski flying world champion and the best individual jumper today.

The World Cup season finale at Planica will conclude on Sunday with an individual event featuring the top 30 jumpers in the overall standings.

STA, 25 March - Slovenian ski jumpers swept the podium in the first individual event of the World Cup season finale on Friday, as Žiga Jelar won the event ahead of Peter Prevc and Anže Lanišek. And this is not all - Slovenia's Timi Zajc was fourth to round off the complete domination of the home team in front of the capacity crowd at Planica.

Jelar, who also had the longest jump of the event, at 239 metres in the second run, scored 468.2 points for his first career World Cup win and his third podium finish, followed by Prevc (464.8 points), Lanišek (458.5) and Zajc (454.8).

The 24-year-old also took over the overall lead in the ski flying standings, with a 20-point advantage ahead of Zajc and a 30-point advantage ahead of the world record holder, Stefan Kraft of Austria, who was 6th today (450.3 points).

Four other Slovenians made it to the second run featuring the top 30 jumpers in the first run, with Domen Prevc being the best among them with 443.5 points and the 7th place.

The last time that the first four competitors at a Ski Jumping World Cup even were from the same country happened on 20 January 1980, when Austrians took the first for spots in Thunder Bay.

"What can I say? I proved to everyone that I really am a fighter. After various comments that I was looking for excuses ... here I stand in Planica. Exceptional, really," Jelar told the national broadcaster TV Slovenija.

The win for Jelar comes after a very difficult season, in which he had a long recovery from severe symptoms of Covid-19, and in which he failed to make it to the Slovenian team for the Winter Olympics in Beijing.

The World Cup season finale at Planica will continue on Saturday with a team event and conclude on Sunday with an individual event featuring the top 30 jumpers in the overall standings.

* Results of the Ski Jumping World Cup event at Planica:
 1 Žiga Jelar (SLO)              468.2 points (232.0 m/239.0)
 2 Peter Prevc (SLO)             464.8        (226.0/237.0)
 3 Anže Lanišek (SLO)            458.5        (230.0/230.5)
 4 Timi Zajc (SLO)               454.8        (228.0/224.0)
 5 Ryoyu Kobayashi (JAP)         452.8        (223.5/237.0)
 6 Stefan Kraft (AUT)            450.3        (222.0/228.5)
 7 Domen Prevc (SLO)             443.5        (234.5/220.0)
 8 Yukiya Sato (JAP)             442.9        (231.5/238.5)
 9 Halvor Egner Granerud (NOR)   442.2        (229.5/234.5)
10 Manuel Fettner (AUT)          441.8        (227.0/231.0)
...
16 Anže Semenič (SLO)            429.4        (219.0/231.0)
22 Bor Pavlovčič (SLO)           416.7        (221.5/210.0)
27 Lovro Kos (SLO)               407.1        (215.0/227.5)
29 Cene Prevc (Slo)              388.6        (214.5/219.0)
...

* Overall standings (27/28):
 1 Ryoyu Kobayashi (JAP)       1,589 points
 2 Karl Geiger (GER)           1,500
 3 Halvor Egner Granerud (NOR) 1,205
 4 Marius Lindvik (NOR)        1,131
 5 Stefan Kraft (AUT)          1,045
 6 Markus Eisenbichler (GER)     943
 7 Anže Lanišek (SLO)            891
 8 Timi Zajc (SLO)               661
 9 Jan Hörl (AUT)                652
10 Cene Prevc (SLO)              621

STA, 10 January 2022 - The organising committee for the FIS Cross-Country World Cup events scheduled to take place in the Planica Nordic Centre in Slovenia on 22 and 23 January has cancelled the competition, citing the steep rise in coronavirus infections in the country as the reason.

The venue in north-western Slovenia was scheduled to host the men's and women's classical sprint on 22 January and the men's 30km and women's 15km skiathlon on 23 January.

The Planica organising committee said on Monday that the decision to cancel the events had been made in cooperation with all partners as the number of infections with Covid-19 continues to rise steeply.

The decision comes as the snow conditions in the Planica Centre are ideal and the venue and accompanying infrastructure is undergoing final preparations.

With the dates for the events being close to the start of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, some of the foreign teams said that their appearance in Planica was questionable or decided to register members of their B teams for the events.

The organising committee noted the "critical epidemiological situation in Slovenia and Europe" and the "sharp rise in Covid-19 infections and projections of an additional increase in the coming days".

It added that this made it even more difficult to provide a safe environment for the competitors and staff and that, according to experts, it was not possible to provide sufficient protection at such a large event.

"The epidemiological situation is bad and we are trying to maintain the functioning of critical infrastructure, so we advise against events that pose additional risk," said epidemiologist Irena Grmek Košnik, the Covid-19 coordinator in the committee.

STA, 1 October 2021 - The Laboratory for Gravitational Physiology was inaugurated on Friday at the Planica Nordic Centre in cooperation with the European Space Agency, the ministries of science and the economy and the Jožef Stefan Institute. The laboratory will contribute to research to maintain the well-being of astronauts during missions to space. 

The agreement on starting a joint operation was signed at Friday's ceremony by European Space Agency (ESA) director general Josef Ascbacher, Jožef Stefan Institute (IJS) director Boštjan Zalar, and Planica Nordic Centre director Franci Petek.

In his address, Aschbacher said the ESA was very happy to add to its programme the Planica Nordic Centre, which has a unique capacity to research hypoxemia, a shortage of oxygen supply in blood.

Future space missions are likely to be hypoxic, allowing for lighter structures or reducing the risk of decompression sickness during exits and surface operations, he said, adding that the results of the bed rest study can be used to prepare for human spaceflight and will be of great help in preparing for future missions.

The ESA director lauded all the partners that contributed to the implementation of the project and called on government officials to consider a further increase in Slovenia's contribution to the ESA's activities.

Danes je v Nordijskem centru Planica potekala otvoritev in zagon posebne raziskovalne naprave »človeške centrifuge«. Ministrica @SimonaKustec: "Gre za izjemen dosežek za Slovenijo, ki bo pomembno prispeval k razvoju znanosti in gospodarstva." pic.twitter.com/2JYsXsR7mL

— Ministrstvo za izobraževanje, znanost in šport (@MIZS_RS) October 1, 2021

Ministrica @SimonaKustec: V veliko čast in ponos nam je, da bo ?? s to napravo postala ena od 3 držav @esa, kjer se bodo izvajale bedrest raziskave. Verjamem, da bodo rezultati raziskav človeške centrifuge pomemben prispevek na področju vesolja kot tudi za zdravje ljudi na ?. pic.twitter.com/f8pe5PWkqT

— Ministrstvo za izobraževanje, znanost in šport (@MIZS_RS) October 1, 2021

The official then attended a bilateral meeting with Education Minister Simona Kustec and State Secretary at the Economy Ministry Simon Zajc, who were also present at the ceremony and who both hailed the realisation of cooperation.

The ESA director praised Slovenia's work and its cooperation with the ESA as an associate member country on its way to full membership. He also underlined the good performance of Slovenian companies and the importance of Friday's opening of the new facilities in Planica.

The opening of the Laboratory for Gravitational Physiology and the launch of the "human centrifuge" in Planica will enable the possibility of breakthrough international and interdisciplinary research in space physiology and medicine, the IJS said.

Addressing the launch, IJS director Zalar noted the opportunities opened up by the laboratory and great plans for future cooperation with the ESA, where the institute is to have full support from the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology.

Being quite remote, Planica makes an optimal place for such research because there are not many factors that could interfere with the measurements, Zalar said, noting vibrations, climate and air quality.

The establishment of the new laboratory is largely the result of 20 years of work by researchers from the IJS Department of Automation, Biocybernetics and Robotics, led by Igor Mekjavič.

After first experimental research two decades ago, an altitude room was established in 2007 in a hotel in Planica and in 2010 Slovenia signed a cooperation agreement with the ESA.

Only a year later, IJS researchers received special support from the ESA for their research of how hypoxemia affects processes of adaptation to zero-gravity and in 2016 Slovenia signed an association agreement that allowed the country to take part in select ESA programmes.

In support of research at the Planica lab and to encourage new research institutions and industry in the space sector, Slovenia in 2019 opted to take part in the ESA programme of human and robotic research with a financial contribution of EUR 2 million.

The "human centrifuge" at the laboratory, which combines medical research and microgravity simulation, will be only the third such facility in Europe, alongside those in Germany and France.

This operation will attract Slovenian and foreign scientists and increase the presence of Slovenian expertise in space exploration, said the IJS.

The Education, Science and Sport Ministry added that the new laboratory will be important both for space expeditions and for people on Earth, as the research programme will also contribute to findings relevant for lung and heart patients, overweight people and patients with osteoporosis.

STA, 28 March 2021 - Germany won the final team event of the Ski Jumping World Cup on the giant hill in Planica on Sunday ahead of Japan and Austria. Slovenia placed fourth, missing the last chance for a team podium this season.

 Pius Paschke, Markus Eisenbichler, Constantin Schmid and Kar Geiger secured 819.5 points with jumps of 218, 235.5, 212 and 220.5 metres, beating their Japanese rivals by 9.5 points and Austria by 30.6 points at what was a single-series event.

Despite Bora Pavlovčič's personal best of 243 metres, Slovenia were 3.4 points short for the podium. Domen Prevc landed at 228.5 metres and Peter Prevc at 205 after making a mistake. Žiga Jelar made it to 204.5 metres.

Commenting on the poor showing of his team, coach Robert Hrgota told TV Slovenija: "You mustn't afford a mistake in a single season and we have."

Hrgota praised Bor Pavlovčič for his "excellent flight", but regretted the "failed" attempts by Peter Prevc and Žiga Jelar, while commending Domen on another very solid flight.

Pavlovčič is third after the first series in the individual event. Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi is in the lead ahead of Germany's Karl Geiger.

* Results of team event:
1st Germany      819.5 points
(Pius Paschke 218 m - Constantin Schmid 212 m - Markus Eisenbichler
235.5 m - Karl Geiger 220.5 m)
2nd Japan      810.0
(Naoki Nakamura 225.5 - Junshiro Kobayashi 214 - Yukiya Sato 229.5 -
Ryoyu Kobayashi 226.5)
3rd Austria     788.9
(Daniel Huber 233.5 - Markus Schiffner 213 - Stefan Kraft 208.5 -
Michael Hayböck 218,5)
4th Slovenia    785.5
(Bor Pavlovčič 243 - Peter Prevc 205 - Žiga Jelar 204.5 - Domen
Prevc 228.5)
5th Norway    779.2
(Halvor Egner Granerud 229.5 - Marius Lindvik 198.5 - Johann Andre
Forfang 212 - Robert Johansson 221)
6th Poland      763.9
(Piotr žyla 213 - Andrzej Stekala 222 - Jakub Wolny 214 - Dawid
Kubacki 204)
...

STA, 25 March 2021 - Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi won the individual ski flying World Cup event in Planica, Slovenia on Thursday, scoring 452.5 points. Germany's Markus Eisenbichler and Karl Geiger placed second (445.1 points) and third (431.2 points), respectively. The best among Slovenians was Bor Pavlovčič in fifth place.

The first event of the Ski Jumping World Cup finals saw a number of favourites miss out on the final round, including the overall winner of the season Halvor Egner Granerud of Norway.

After the first round, the situation was looking good for the Slovenian team with Domen Prevc and Pavlovčič trailing Kobayashi at the top, however both Slovenians underperformed in the final round. Prevc placed eight, whereas the rest of the team did not make it among the first 15 competitors.

The event on the Flying hill of Gorišek brothers marked the first time the final round saw as many as ten Slovenian competitors.

In a frightening turn of events Norway's Andre Tande suffered a terrible fall in the trial round and had to be airlifted to the UKC Ljubljana medical centre. His medical condition is currently stable, according to the International Ski Federation (FIS).

The 27-year-old is part of the Norwegian team that was victorious at the Ski Flying World Championships in Planica in December.

The next World Cup event will be held tomorrow when another individual event will take place.

STA, 13 December 2020 - Norway won the team event at the Ski Flying World Championships at Slovenia's Planica on Sunday, overtaking Germany in the last round as Halvor Egner Granerud performed better than Karl Geiger, who beat the Norwegian yesterday in the individual event. Slovenia bounced back from the turmoil in their ranks by finishing fourth.

The Norwegian team thus defended their gold medal from the previous Ski Flying World Championships to earn the fifth medal for the nation in team events.

After Geiger won the individual event and his counterpart Markus Eisenbichler finished third on Saturday, Germany were considered favourites to win their first team event, and they were actually at the very top all the way until the last round.

But Granerud turned the things around in the last jump, bringing Norway's total tally to 1,727.7 points, against Germany's 1,708.5. The bronze medal went to Poland, which scored 1665.5 points.

Following turmoil in the national team that saw jumper Timi Zajc and head coach Gorazd Bertoncelj leaving the team on Saturday, Peter Prevc returned to the squad to help Slovenia take the forth place (1,609.9 points).

The remaining four teams were far behind - Japan (5th) scored 1,483.5 points, followed by Austria (1,422.1), Russia (1,356.3) and Finland (1,284.8).

STA, 12 December 2020 - Germany's Karl Geiger won the individual event of the Ski Flying World Championship at Slovenia's Planica with a total of 877.2 points after a nail-biting finish in which the second-placed Halvor Egner Granerud of Norway fell behind by only half of a point after four rounds of jumping.

Geiger led from start to finish as the individual event started with two rounds on Friday and wrapped up on Saturday with another two rounds.

The German had an advantage of 7.7 points heading into the last round but Granerud saved his best jump for the last round, soaring to the 243-metre mark for the second-longest jump so far at the championships.

Geiger responded with a 231.5-metre effort to stay in the first place by a whisker, winning 877.2 points against the Norwegian's 876.7 points. The ski flying title thus returns to Germany after Severin Freund won it in 2004.

"There was a lot of pressure. It felt good already after the first jump, but I was aware that I had to stay focused until the last jump. This is unbelievable. I really felt good right from the get-go," Geiger told reporters.

Finishing third to win the bronze medal was Markus Eisenbichler of Germany, who shook off Michael Hayböck of Austria with a 230-metre jump to earn 859.3 points and leave the Austrian more than 14 points behind.

The best Slovenian in the first three rounds, Anže Lanišek, further improved in the last round to finish 12th with 777.2 points, after managing his best jump of all four rounds of 228 metres.

Bor Pavlovčič finished in the 20th place with 715.5 points, and Domen Prevc was right behind him with 712.7 points.

There were four Slovenian competitors in the first two rounds on Friday, but Timi Zajc has been kicked out of the national team following an exchange with head coach Gorazd Bertoncelj, who has also left the team.

Slovenia will appear in Sunday's team event though, as Zajc will be replaced by Peter Prevc, who is returning to the Planica "bubble" after failing to make the team for the individual event.

Robert Hrgota, the former ski jumper and Bertoncelj's deputy, who had to jump in as the new leader after the discord in the Slovenian team, said after the individual event that Slovenians were going for a podium finish in the team event.

"Anže showed yesterday and today that he is close to the top. He is the bright star at the moment and we are happy that we have a strong trump card who will also fight tomorrow to help Slovenia rank high," he added.

In the statement for the national broadcaster TV Slovenija, the interim head coach added that the "battle for the podium will take place until the last jump. There are eight jumps in the team event and many things can happen."

* Final standings of the individual event at Planica:
 1 Karl Geiger (GER)           877.2 pts (241/223.5/240.5/231.5 m)
 2 Halvor Egner Granerud (NOR) 876.7 (221/229.5/239/243)
 3 Markus Eisenbichler (GER)   859.3 (220/247/234.5/230)
 4 Michael Hayböck (AUT)       845.1 (245.5/217/237.5/220.5)
 5 Robert Johansson (NOR)      841.0 (220/228.5/228/232)
 6 Yukiya Sato (JAP)           835.1 (222/229/228/229)
 7 Piotr Žyla (POL)            828.6 (221.5/224.5/227/224.5)
 8 Kamil Stoch (POL)           808.5 (213/229/223/222.5)
 9 Evgeni Klimov (RUS)         802.2 (237/208/222.5/220)
10 Andrzej Stekala (POL)       792.4 (224.5/215.5/224.5/212)
...
12 Anže Lanišek (SLO)          777.2 (196/218,5/215.5/228)
20 Bor Pavlovčič (SLO)         715.5 (207/198/207/203.5)
21 Domen Prevc (SLO)           712.7 (206/206.5/206.7/207.5)
...

STA, 11 December 2020 - The Ski Flying World Championships at Slovenia's Planica will start on Friday with the first two rounds of the individual event. Four Slovenian jumpers will be in the competition. One of main favourites is Markus Eisenbichler of Germany, who topped Thursday's qualifiers.

Slovenia will be represented by Bor Pavlovčič, Timi Zajc, Anže Lanišek and Domen Prevc and another 36 jumpers will take part in the individual event, which will conclude on Saturday with two more rounds.

Eisenbichler, the winner of the last World Cup event on the Brothers Gorišek hill at Planica in 2019, has put his name among the favourites as he won the qualifiers with what was not actually the longest jump.

The longest flight was taken by Michael Hayböck of Austria, who landed at 242.5 metres for second place in the qualifiers. Halvor Egner Granerud of Norway, the winner of the last three World Cup events, was third.

Missing out was Slovenia's Peter Prevc, one of the heroes of Planica and former world champion and record holder, who failed to show a good form in internal Slovenian qualifiers during the official training.

Also out of the individual event is the current world record holder Stefan Kraft of Austria (253.5 metres in Vikersund in 2017), who has aggravated a back injury.

The Ski Flying World Championships, which is held without spectators due to the Covid-19 protocol and for the first time in Planica under floodlights in the afternoon hours, will wrap up on Sunday with the team event.