Preliminary calendars: first glimpses into the 2018/19 season

With the Technical Committee Meetings at the Hilton Airport Zürich, the season 2017/18 has been wrapped up and the gaze directed into the future and the upcoming World Championship winter. All preliminary calendars, which were presented to the Nordic Combined Executive Board, may still be subject to change and are subject to the approval of the FIS Congress in Costa Navarino in May.

The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Seefeld, Austria will definitely be the big highlight of the season, and, together with the FIS Junior World Championships in Finland, the only opportunities to extend the athletes’ medal collections.

World Cup 2018/19

But also the regular World Cup promises to be exciting. Starting off with a long and partly restructured first period, the athletes will compete in nine different events before Christmas. While the season opening stays in Ruka, Finland, the tour weekend has moved to Lillehammer this year. The tour will feature three events again but with a revised concept and competition program featuring the Mass Start return to World Cup. The concept will be published in detail after the Congress in Costa Navarino in May. After this, the World Cup moves on to another Norwegian location (still to be determined) on the following weekend. Ramsau am Dachstein will be the most “Christmassy” World Cup stop ever, wrapping the events up just one day before Christmas Evening.

Otepää, Estonia will feature again on the 2018/19 calendar and open the year 2019 in style with two Individual Gundersen events. Two hard three-event weekend will await the athletes next: the traditional long weekend in Val di Fiemme first, followed by the Nordic Combined TRIPLE. This highlight of the Nordic Combined calendar will be held in Chaux-Neuve, France for the first time, due to TRIPLE venue Seefeld hosting the World Championships later in the season.

The third period opens with an overseas trip to the bi-annual World Cup stop in Sapporo, Japan, before continuing in Klingenthal, Germany, Lahti, Finland and another location that is still to be determined.  After the World Championships in Austria, three more World Cup events will wrap up the season in Oslo and Schonach in March.

Summer Grand Prix 2018

The Summer Grand Prix will be an entry on the men’s and ladies’ calendar for the first time with a shared opening event in Oberwiesenthal, Germany. The men then continue to an Austrian venue and then to Oberstdorf, traditionally a shared event with the FIS Youth Cup. As last year, a weekend in Planica in late September will close out the summer season.

Continental Cups and Youth Cup

Both Continental Cup calendars, for ladies and for men, as well as the FIS Youth Cup calendar will be presented at the FIS Congress in Costa Navarino in May.