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Ander Mintegui: Second Place at the European Cup

by Ines Camacho
Dec 11, 2025

The notable debut of the Bilbao native in the Ski World Cup is now joined by a valuable second place in the European circuit, where he has managed to prevail over multiple rivals with extensive international experience.

In the European Cup Super-G held in Santa Caterina, Ander Mintegui achieved an outstanding second place, just 32 hundredths behind Austrian Felix Hacker and with a very similar lead over Swiss Marco Kohler, both with extensive experience in high-level international competition.

At just 22 years old, and after his debut this year in the World Cup, Mintegui is beginning to establish himself as one of the most promising emerging figures in Spanish skiing.

The European Cup speed season opened with a Super-G on the Deborah Compagnoni slope in Santa Caterina, a course that brought together no less than 112 participants. Spanish skier Ander Mintegui (ESK-NKEF) started with bib number 14, a number which, while representing a reasonably favorable position, is not the most advantageous, as the first racers enjoy a completely untouched course, while the track begins to deteriorate as the competition progresses.

Despite this, the Basque skier from the Royal Spanish Winter Sports Federation completed a magnificent run, showing remarkable consistency in all splits. In the first sector, he was +0.06 behind the best time; in the second, +0.37; and in the third, he managed to cut -0.11. The final balance secured him second place, only behind Hacker, who beat him by just 32 hundredths.

The achievement is particularly significant considering that no Spanish skier had ever before reached such a high position in a European Cup Super-G event. There are notable precedents in downhill, such as Adur Etxezarreta's second place in Tarvisio in 2022 or Paul de la Cuesta's third place in the North American Cup in Lake Louise (CAN), but a comparable result in Super-G within the European circuit had never before been achieved.

With this new success, Ander Mintegui reinforces the upward trajectory he has been building in a season marked by his World Cup debut. In his first participation in this circuit, the Super-G in Copper Mountain on November 27th, he was only 20 hundredths away from scoring points and finished in a promising 38th place.