Winter sports news blog
German surprise at Nordic combination
Updated on December 7, 2024 – 5:02 p.mReading time: 12 minutes
The winter sports season has begun. In our news ticker you will find all the important news about ski jumping, biathlon, alpine skiing and cross-country skiing.
SaturdayDecember 7, 2024
Thanks to a decent performance on the cross-country ski trail, Julian Schmid can look forward to a podium finish in the Nordic Combined. The 25-year-old from Oberstdorf took second place in Jarl Magnus Riiber’s home win in Lillehammer, Norway. He was 36.7 seconds behind the local hero after 10 kilometers. With Johannes Rydzek in seventh place, another German made it into the top ten.
Nathalie Armbruster repeated her comeback from the previous day and also landed in second place. After jumping, the 18-year-old was in ninth place. The day before she had fought her way up from 14th place to sixth place.
A total of five athletes from the German Ski Association were in good shape in the race before the start of the 5-kilometer route. But only Armbruster and Jenny Nowak in ninth place were able to hold their own. Ida Marie Hagen from Norway secured the victory.
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
Franziska Preuß made an impressive comeback after her short forced break due to illness and took fifth place in the biathletes’ first individual race this winter. After two shooting errors, each penalized with 45 seconds, she was 1:09.6 minutes behind the perfectly shooting winner Lou Jeanmonnot from France in Kontiolahti, Finland.
Preuß had to cancel the relay race last Sunday at short notice due to a slight infection. But apparently well recovered, the 30-year-old completed the 12.5 kilometer race as the best athlete in the German Ski Association.
Vanessa Voigt only missed once and also made it into the top ten in ninth place. Selina Grotian (4 errors/50th), Julia Tannheimer (5/57th), Julia Kink (5/65th) and Johanna Puff (4/74th) had nothing to do with the decision. The still very young quartet made too many mistakes on the shooting range.
Felix Neureuther expressed his disappointment about his former competitor Marcel Hirscher’s early end to the season. The former ski racer showed great compassion and praised his untapped potential. “That is very bitter,” said Neureuther to the German Press Agency. He added: “I’m incredibly sorry for him because he wasn’t able to show anywhere near the potential that he still has. I’m sure that he would have managed the set-up so that he could at some point would have been at the front again.”
Hirscher, the eight-time overall World Cup winner, was seriously injured on Tuesday during a training ride on the Reiteralm in Austria. As his team announced, he tore a cruciate ligament in his left knee and will be out for the rest of the season. It is questionable whether he will even return again. “Maybe I’m finally done with my journey,” said Hirscher after the diagnosis became known.
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
The Norwegian Ole Einar Bjørndalen is the undisputed number one in the history of biathlon with 94 World Cup victories. But this record could soon be history – of all people, his compatriot Johannes Thingnes Bø is on top. The former downhill dominator Lindsey Vonn will be taking part in an alpine ski race again this weekend after a break of almost six years. The 40-year-old American is planning to compete in the downhill and super-G on Saturday and Sunday at a lower-class race run by the World Federation Fis in Copper Mountain, Colorado. This was revealed by US head coach Paul Kristofic, according to the AP news agency. Way to take that record away from him. For Bjørndalen, it’s not a question of if, but when.