The U.S. women’s Nordic combined team opened the 2024-25 World Cup season over the weekend in Lillehammer, Norway with Steamboat Springs skier Alexa Brabec earning a career best. 

Brabec, 20, soared off the HS 98 ski jump on Saturday, touching down 78 meters into the landing area for a 22nd-place jump. 

From there, Brabec skied up 11 places in the 5-kilometer cross country race to take 11th in the World Cup event. Her time of 14 minutes, 29 seconds was the ninth-fastest time in the race and she finished just 1:51 behind the winner. 

Not far behind was Steamboat’s Annika Malacinski, who placed 24th. 

The World Cup weekend began the previous day for the women, where both Brabec and Malacinski managed to ski up six places from their starting points. Brabec took 15th and Malacinski was 21st. 

Through the first World Cup weekend of the season, Brabec now sits 11th overall in the women’s standings with Malacinski in 24th. 

The Nordic combined men competed on Saturday and Sunday in Lilliehammer, with Steamboat’s Niklas Malacinski coming off his personal-best finish of 13th in Ruka, Finland the previous week. 

The 21-year-old jumped to 18th in Saturday’s event after flying 86.5 meters on the HS 98 ski jump. He finished the competition in 23rd after the long 10-kilometer ski race. 

Niklas Malacinski followed that with a 31st-place finish on Sunday following a 1238.5-meter jump to 27th on the HS 140. 

Niklas is currently the 23rd-ranked men’s Nordic combined skier on the World Cup leaderboard. He is the highest-ranked American man. 

Next up on the Nordic combined schedule is a World Cup event in Ramsau, Austria from Dec. 19-21.