Athlete of the Week: Eero Hirvonen (FIN)

With Akito Watabe, Fabian Rießle and Jan Schmid already having been “Athletes of the Week” this season, narrowing down the pick for this longest week of the season was made quite easy. Who survived five competitions in eight days best?

The answer is: Finland’s Eero Hirvonen. Two podiums and four Top Ten positions in five events sent a clear message: the 22-year-old with the burning ambition has arrived among Nordic Combined’s best athletes, as the current sixth place in the overall World Cup standings can also attest to. With last week’s exploits, Hirvonen increases his podium tally to six in total, four from this season. Not counted into these figures are a couple of extremely tight finishes, in which Hirvonen was left standing… for now.

While finishing on the podium becomes more and more natural, the Finn’s age and more introvert personality can still be seen in the podium photos or his appearance at the press conference… but here as in all aspects of life, practice makes perfect. What he has already mastered perfectly are hilarious instagram appearances with roommate Ilkka Herola, depicting the highlights and pitfalls of life on tour and commenting his own results with pure, refreshing honesty.

Last season’s “Rookie of the Year” already turned heads in the 2016/17 winter, breaking into the World Cup top ten and has since been Finland’s biggest hope to bring back the glory of past eras to today’s Nordic Combined sport. Even though the big victories and medals are still missing, be that in the individual races, Team Sprints together with Ilkka Herola or the full Team Event, it is only a question of time until the resident of Jyväskylä will make that last step, onto the very top of the podium individually and onto the podium with his team.