On Friday (January 7th, 2022) there will be a premiere in the Nordic Combined World Cup calendar. A premiere and a “Competition highlight of the season”, as Horst Hüttel, team manager of the combined athletes in the German Ski Association, thinks. For the first time men and women are in the World Cup in one Mixed-Competition at the start.
Two men and two women at the start
From 10 a.m. in Val di Fiemme, Italy, two athletes per nation can start off on the normal hill, and from 1.15 p.m., a mixed 4×5-kilometer relay takes off on the cross-country ski run. “That will be exciting”, promises Hüttel.
“We already had one in the Summer Grand Prix Mixed-Contest. Although the bigger nations like Germany, Austria and Norway started with the best line-up, smaller nations like Russia and Italy also made it onto the podium. “
Men’s national coach Hermann Weinbuch is also looking forward to the premiere: “We are very excited to see how the team spirit between the men and women will be and what will come out in the end.”
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the Mixed-Competition around four weeks before the Olympic Games should also support the plans of the World Ski Federation to finally include the Nordic combined women in the Olympic program. After all, Nordic combined is the only sport at the Olympics that does not yet have women’s competitions.
“There are more people watching”
the Mixed-The Val di Fiemme competition is definitely the right step towards a possible Olympic premiere in 2026, says Svenja Würth. “Something like that is really good for our sport, because then the media presence is higher” “said the combiner, who will be absent at the weekend for family reasons, the German press agency.
“Few people watch a Women’s Combined World Cup because they just don’t know the names and the sport. When that takes place with the men and then see figureheads like Terence Weber or Eric Frenzel on TV then more people just look at it. “
Frenzel and Nowak in one team?
Jenny Nowak knows what it feels like at a premiere: At the juniorWM 2020 in Oberwiesenthal she got at the JWM–Mixed-Premiere silver. Now she is also at the start of the World Cup: “I am looking forward to Predazzo because it is the very first time we have a mixed team competition in the World Cup”says the 19-year-old who worked at the JWM She also became Junior World Champion in singles almost two years ago. Eric Frenzel was one of the well-wishers at the time. In the competition on Friday, the two could now jump and run together in the same competition for the first time.
Men: Front runner Riiber is missing due to a back injury
Last week, the women prepared for the World Cup weekend directly in the Fiemme Valley at the ski jump in Predazzo. The men put in another jump training in Planica.
For the men there is also the chance to shorten the gap in the overall World Cup to the superior leader Jarl Magnus Riiber. The Norwegian has to skip the weekend competitions due to a back injury.