New faces on the Norwegian A-team

As the Norwegian Ski Association announced on Monday, eight male and four female ski jumpers were named to the A-teams for the upcoming 2019/20 season.

With Marius Lindvik, Junior World Champion Thomas Aasen Markeng and Robin Pedersen, three young athletes, who gained some attention last winter, are now on the A-team of head coach Alexander Stoeckl together with Daniel Andre Tande, Anders Fannemel, Robert Johansson, Johann Andre Forfang and Halvor Egner Granerud.

"Robin, Marius, and Thomas are three exciting athletes, who all showed good performance and we think that they can reinforce the team. Besides their sporting qualities, they are also three different personalities who can also contribute to the culture within the team", explains Alexander Stoeckl.

Ski Flying World Champion Daniel Andre Tande, who is currently working on his comeback, remains on the A-team after a difficult last season during which he was struggling with some health problems and a knee injury. "Daniel is doing physical training. It seems as if it's getting better from day to day. The knee is stable, but has to decide himself when he is ready to jump again", says Stoeckl.

So far the Austrian has not defined any exact goals for the new season: "The goals for the upcoming season have not been definitely determined yet because we want to include the athletes in this process. But of course, we want to win more competitions and fight for the top spots in the various tournaments, at the Ski Flying World Championships and in the overall World Cup."

The ladies' A-team consists of Olympic Champion Maren Lundby, Silje Opseth, Anna Odine Stroem, and Ingebjoerg Saglien Braaten. The main goal of head coach Christian Meyer, who will be supported by Henning Stensrud from now on, is claiming the overall World Cup title again, which went to Maren Lundby in the past two seasons.