Austrian women’s team meets for camp in Villach and Planica

Last week, the first training group of the Austrian women’s team met in Villach (AUT) and Planica (SLO) for their first common training camp. The group consists of six women: Lisa Hirner and Sigrun Kleinrath, who both already stood on the podium at Continental Cup events. The team is completed by Annalena Slamik, youngsters Laura Pletz and Anja Rathgeb and former Ski Jumper Claudia Purker, who decided to switch to Nordic Combined this spring.

Similar to the children at the ÖSV kids camp last week, also the Nordic Combined women were assisted and mentored by FIS World Champion Bernhard Gruber, who is currently still recovering from heart surgery and can only do light training. A new experience for Gruber: “It was so exciting to see everything from the coaches’ perspective. They do so many things that you don’t really perceive as an athlete. The days in Villach and Planica were super fun and I hope I was also to help the girls with my knowledge and experience”, Gruber said afterwards.

The camp was the first occasion that the women from different teams were able to train together. The focus was on individual coaching during the week but some sessions were common sessions in which the athletes pushed each other.

“On some of the hills, you even meet your international competitors”, says ÖSV women’s head coach Bernhard Aicher. “In Planica, we jumped together with the Germans once. As women’s Nordic Combined is a young sport, many nations see a chance to be successful and invest in the teams and staff. We have a young but powerful group. It is too early to say where we stand as as team internationally, as we don’t have any comparison at the moment. But it was great to have Berni on board as a big name in Nordic Combined, who passed on his tremendous wealth of experience and knowledge in some of the sessions.”

For former Ski Jumper Claudia Purker, it was the first camp with a Nordic Combined focus. “I was struggling a lot during the last season in Ski Jumping and so Alex Diess, the coach at my training centre asked me if I would want to have a look at Nordic Combined. I liked the cross-country skiing right away and so I grabbed my chance to change to Nordic Combined this spring. Of course I have a lot of ground to make up in the cross-country part and I am working hard on this. But I am having so much fun!”