Veteran Pole Claims First Victory in Nine Years on the Adam Małysz Hill
Maciej Kot delivered the standout story of the 2026 summer ski jumping season on Saturday, winning the Wisła Summer Grand Prix opener before a home crowd at the HS134 Adam Małysz hill. The 34-year-old jumped 127.5 metres in the first round and pushed to 132.5 metres in the second, accumulating 271.7 points — enough to overcome a field thinned by a wave of equipment disqualifications and prove that experience still carries weight on the circuit.
It was Kot's first victory at the elite international level since February 2017. He had competed consistently in the intervening years, placing on podiums sporadically at World Cup level, but a win had eluded him across almost a decade. "I wouldn't have expected that," he said afterwards. "Today was really tough — I thought I could show my best jumps of the season here, but I never imagined it would be enough for top ten, let alone victory." The reaction from the Wisła crowd was immediate and loud; the hill that carries the name of Poland's most celebrated ski jumper has long been a spiritual home for the Polish team.
Bachlinger and Stoch Complete the Podium
Austria's Niklas Bachlinger finished second with 268.5 points, recording a consistent pair of 130.5-metre jumps to hold off a fast-closing field. Right behind him came compatriot and fellow veteran Kamil Stoch on 268.4 points — separated from Bachlinger by a single tenth of a point — after landings of 126 and 130 metres. The Slovenian pair of Žiga Jelar and Lovro Kos rounded out the top five, reinforcing Slovenia's growing presence in summer competition.
The margin of just one tenth between second and third underlined how compressed the scoring was in the upper reaches of the leaderboard. The competition was further shaped by FIS's tightened suit regulations, which were enforced rigorously: multiple athletes were disqualified after the jury ruled that their competition suits did not comply with the revised specifications introduced this season. The new rules are designed to remove aerodynamic advantages gained through oversized or otherwise non-compliant suits, and Saturday's enforcement signalled that the federation intends to apply them without leniency across the entire summer tour.
Germany Fields a Development Lineup
The German Ski Association (DSV) sent a largely developmental squad to Wisła. Luca Roth led the German men, finishing 16th; Adrian Tittel placed 24th. The DSV's A-team — Karl Geiger, Andreas Wellinger, Pius Paschke, Philipp Raimund and Felix Hoffmann — were absent by design, with the coaching staff pointing to the second Summer Grand Prix stop at Courchevel, France, on 8 and 9 August as their primary summer objective. The women's side followed a similar logic: Juliane Seyfarth led a young German group in Wisła while Selina Freitag is scheduled for Courchevel.
The strategic decision is not unusual in modern summer ski jumping, where federations balance competitive development with resource allocation. For younger athletes such as Roth, Wisła represented a chance to accumulate Grand Prix points and competition experience against a partially depleted but still internationally competitive field.
Summer Tour Continues in Courchevel
Sunday brings a second individual competition in Wisła — women's qualifying is set for 11:30, with the men's final scheduled for 14:45. The full Summer Grand Prix caravan then travels to Courchevel for the next two events on 8 and 9 August, where the return of the German A-team and other withheld stars will significantly raise the field's quality.
For Kot, the timing of this victory is meaningful. He turns 35 in August, competes in a sport where peak windows are narrow, and had spent years chasing a result that had looked increasingly out of reach. Saturday's win in front of his home crowd on Poland's most iconic jump was, by any measure, a result worth the wait. The next question is whether the form holds through the Alps.