PREDAZZO, Italy — Germany’s Philipp Raimund won the gold medal in the men’s normal hill ski jumping event as he soared ahead of Poland’s Kacper Tomasiak at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Monday.

The Pole had to settle for silver, while Japan’s Ren Nikaido and Switzerland’s Gregor Deschwanden shared bronze. Favorite Domen Prevc of Slovenia only managed sixth place.

Raimund claimed the title with a final jump of 106.5 meters as he reached 274.1 points, 3.4 points ahead of Tomasiak, while Nikaido and Deschwanden finished 8.1 points back.

The 25-year-old Raimund fired an early warning on a dark but clear night in the Italian Alps, soaring 102 meters in the first round to earn the final jump of the competition and then handled the pressure to fly to his first Olympic gold.

“I know there’s a lot of pressure from the media and outside but my coach, the whole staff, my girlfriend … they were taking all that off my shoulders so I could just concentrate on myself. I want to say thank you to everybody,” he said.

“I’m extremely proud of myself that I could do two amazing jumps and stand on top at the end.”

The 19-year-old Tomasiak was delighted with second place.

“It is a dream coming true. I wasn’t really expecting that at my first Olympics. I’m a little surprised, but very happy. I jumped really good,” he said.

Gold medal favorite Prevc endured a shaky start, finishing only eighth in the opening round after a 100-metre jump, with the World Cup leader looking disappointed as he realized he had landed too short to mount an early challenge for gold.

His 105-metre second-round jump bumped him briefly into first place but he ended up out of the medals.

“Already the small (normal) hill is difficult for me and there was a bit of back wind but, honestly, after yesterday’s training I did not expect too much,” he told Reuters.

Prevc added that he had approached the competition with the mindset that he would be satisfied with a top-10 finish.

“It’s on one hand success for me, but on the other hand I of course came here to win medals and, yeah, it’s a little bit (of a) salty feeling,” Prevc said.

–Reuters, special to Field Level Media

Lindsey Vonn has a complex tibia fracture that will “require multiple surgeries to fix properly,” Vonn said in an Instagram post Monday.

The post is Vonn’s first public statement since her gruesome crash during Sunday’s women’s downhill skiing final at the Milan Cortina Games. Vonn had to be airlifted off the course after crashing in the first 20 seconds of her run.

“While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets,” Vonn wrote. “Standing in the starting gate (Sunday) was an incredible feeling that I will never forget. Knowing I stood there having a chance to win was a victory in and of itself.”

“I also knew that racing was a risk. It always was and always will be an incredibly dangerous sport.”

Vonn, 41, had completely ruptured her ACL and suffered meniscus damage on the same leg in her final World Cup race before the Olympics on Jan. 30. She had decided to race on it anyway, but made it clear the ACL didn’t cause this crash.

“I was simply 5 inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and result(ing) in my crash,” Vonn wrote.

Vonn was airlifted and treated nearby in the Ca’ Foncello Hospital in the northern Italian city of Treviso. She underwent surgery later that day and was in stable condition, U.S. Skiing as well as the hospital said in statements.

Vonn has had a history of serious injuries, so much so that it forced her to initially retire in 2019. A partial knee replacement in April 2024 helped her start her comeback to the sport and to compete in these Olympics.

“Similar to ski racing, we take risks in life. We dream. We love. We jump. And sometimes we fall. Sometimes our hearts are broken. Sometimes we don’t achieve the dreams we know we could have. But that is also the beauty of life; we can try,” Vonn wrote.

“I tried. I dreamt. I jumped.”

–Field Level Media

Jayson Tatum hit an important benchmark in his recovery from an Achilles tear Monday, as the Boston Celtics sent him to take part in the G League affiliate Maine Celtics’ practice in Boston.

The team said in a statement that after Tatum participates in “portions of” Maine’s practice, he will immediately be recalled to Boston to continue his rehab process with the Celtics.

The Celtics’ statement did not give any further details about Tatum’s timeline to return to game action.

Tatum suffered his Achilles tendon tear during the Eastern Conference semifinals last May against the New York Knicks.

Tatum was an All-Star each of the past six years, and in the past four MVP races he finished fourth in balloting twice and sixth twice. He averaged 26.8 points along with career highs of 8.7 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game in 2024-25.

Without Tatum available for most or all of this season, the Celtics were not expected to be competitive. But Jaylen Brown’s career year has helped them start 34-19, tied for second in the East with the Knicks.

Brown is fourth in the NBA in scoring at 29.4 points per game and also has career-high averages in rebounding (6.9) and assists (4.7). Tatum himself said on a recent podcast appearance that he was concerned trying to return late in the year would upset the Celtics’ current chemistry.

Brad Stevens, Boston’s president of basketball operations, sees it another way.

“Obviously, any team with Jayson Tatum’s going to be better,” Stevens said Friday. “If he needs it, I’ll tell him every day. Because every team — all 30 of us — would be way, way better with him on the team.”

The Celtics also assigned Hugo Gonzalez and Amari Williams to practice with Tatum and the Maine Celtics on Monday.

–Field Level Media