Nordic World Ski Championships: Nathalie Armbruster – from school to the podium?

She is the surprise in the Nordic Combined: The only 17-year-old Nathalie Armbruster is the big hope for a medal in the German team.

Nathalie Armbruster is a young woman who hardly anyone knew a few months ago. But the Black Forest girl quickly made a name for herself in Nordic combined – and that at just 17 years old.

At the start of the season in Lillehammer, the high school student achieved something historic: She made it onto the podium as the first German combined athlete. Further top positions followed – Armbruster did not finish in the top three in just two of the nine races. In March 2022, she made her World Cup debut at the age of 16, having just won four medals at the Nordic Junior World Ski Championships in Zakopane.

NoKo “is such a beautiful sport”

The 17-year-old was enthusiastic about the sport at an early age: Armbruster stood on cross-country skis for the first time at the age of four, and at the age of eight she completed her first jumps from the hill – since then she has been infected by the NoKo virus. “Nordic combined is not called the supreme discipline for nothing, it is such a beautiful sport in which you have to master two sports perfectly“, said the woman from the Black Forest in an interview with Sport1.de.

Currently she has to manage the balancing act between school and competitive sport. But the grammar school in Freudenstadt supports them and releases crossbowmen for competitions. A sports boarding school is out of the question for the 17-year-old: “My family means everything to me. That’s where I get my strength from. At a boarding school I would no longer have the stable environment. i love my home“She revealed to SWR.

World Cup fulfills “a big dream”

In Planica a “big dream“for the 17-year-old, as she wrote on Instagram. At the Nordic World Ski Championships, she is the great hope for a medal and can write history: A medal would be the first for a German combined woman at a “big” World Championship. Arnbruster was already a small honor Together with Vinzenz Geiger she carried the German flag at the opening ceremony in Planica.

Gold seems already taken

Silver and bronze are in there for Armbruster – gold seems to be as good as taken: Anything other than the world champion title would be a disappointment for the Norwegian permanent winner Gyda Westvold Hansen. Nine World Cups, nine wins, no weaknesses. The 20-year-old defending champion is the measure of all things both on the hill and on the cross-country ski run. But as we all know, anything is possible at World Championships.

German starters in Nordic combined

At the title fights in Planica (February 21 to March 5), the Nordic athletes will fight twice for precious metal for the first time: In addition to the individual, there will be the premiere of the mixed competition. In addition to Armbruster, Jenny Nowak also celebrated a podium finish. The 20-year-old finished second at the Heimwelt Cup in Schonach.