Manuel FAISST

Germany's Manuel Faisst is another one of the athletes who have Nordic Combined in their blood. In Faisst's case, his father has been a Nordic Combined athlete himself and worked as a coach at Faisst's home club of Baiersbronn. 4-year-old Manuel skied down the outrun of the 10-metre hill at Bergergrund and by 5 years, he had already made his first jumps.

Soon, Faisst's ambitious personality came into play and he kept collecting medals and trophies in his younger years. In 2009, Faisst won at the European Youth Olympic Festical in Sczcyrk and the OPA Games at his home venue in Baiersbronn, as well as making his debut in the World Cup at Lillehammer. He achieved his first World Cup Top Ten result in 2011 at Ramsau am Dachstein with a career-best seventh rank.

In his most successful season so far (2012/13), Faisst dominated the Junior World Championships at Liberec, walking away with all possible gold medals in the two individual and one team event as well as getting started at university in Freiburg where Faisst is studying law.

The winter of 2015/16 became somewhat of a breakthrough season into the elite level of the sport with Faißt earning his first World Cup podium rank in Ramsau am Dachstein, Austria as well as finishing just outside of the overall Top Ten with the final eleventh rank. The following season proved difficult at the start for Faißt but in the end he could look back on a third place in Sapporo Japan and a 13th place in the overall standings despite his difficulties.