His compatriot Carina Vogt then secured Germany's second gold of the day as she leapt to victory in the women's ski jumping.

Rydzek's gold in the Nordic combined ended his run of silver medals, having won three at the Olso 2011 World Championships alone, before claiming another at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in the men's team event.

The 23-year-old had to win his maiden world title the hard way, after seeing his countryman and favourite for gold Eric Frenzel produce a jump of 99 metres in the ski-jumping section of the event.

Frenzel's jump gave him an advantage of 21 seconds to his nearest rival in the cross country skiing, with Rydzek starting the 10 kilometre gundersen in fifth position, but soon put himself into a pack of six athletes that managed to chase Frenzel down.

One of those men was Alessandro Pittin, who had an inspired cross-country race, having started in 14th position, but the Italian caught had caught the lead group and attempted to go solo until the finish.

Unfortunately for Pittin, Rydzek was able to match his efforts and out-sprinted the 25-year-old to the line, with his time of 26min 38.9sec enough to win gold and force Pittin to settle for silver, as he finished 1.3 seconds further back.

Behind the competition for bronze was proving to be just as fierce as Frenzel and the defending champion Lamy Chappuis of France went head to head, with Chappuis ultimately prevailing to secure a place on the podium, finishing 1.1 seconds ahead of the German.

"It's a childhood dream come true," said Rydzek, after his triumph.

"Pittin was so strong in the cross-country skiing.

"But I managed to keep up and being first to cross the finishing line felt absolutely fantastic."

Carina Vogt added to her Olympic crown by securing the world ski jumping title in Falun
©AFP/Getty Images





There was also success in Sweden for Rydzek's compatriot Vogt, as the Olympic champion added the world title, after producing two fine jumps to secure 236.9 points.

It proved enough to earn gold as with International Ski Federation World Cup leader Daniela Iraschko-Stolz of Austria was unable to transfer her form into the competition, although she still managed to achieve bronze, behind Japan's Yuki Ito.

There was disappointment for Ito's teammate Sara Takanashi, whose good form throughout the season has seen her achieve two World Cup victories, but her 228.3 points saw her finish outside the medal places, 5.5 points behind Iraschko-Stolz's bronze medal winning total of 233.8.

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