Stefaniya Nadymova: “I want to keep the leader bib!”

The third and last of the COC Interviews is with Stefaniya Nadymova, the current summer and winter champion of Russia, winner of the Russian Cup of the 2017-2018 season and one of the two leaders in the inaugural Ladies’ Continental Cup season.

Stefaniya, you started your sport career as a ski jumping athlete. How did you come to this sport?

Nadymova: It happened in the city of Kudymkar in the Perm region, where I come from. In 2010, my brother and I visited a summer sports camp for children and at the end of winter I was offered to jump from our hill for the first time. I agreed to try it and was hooked. I really liked it.

Kudymkar is a famous ski jumping center in the Perm region. Probably, your new hobby was not something totally unfamilier for your acquaintances?

Nadymova: (laughs) Yes! There are a lot of ski jumping athletes in our city. But most of them leave the sport after they finish school education, when the question about the choice for the future arises: to continue studying or to concentrate on ski jumping.

In 2012, I already jumped from the big hill and had place in the Russian national ski jumping team. But now I'm engaged in Nordic Combined.

Why did you decide to change your specialisation?

Nadymova: In 2014 in Nizhny Tagil during one of the training jumps, I landed badly and hit my head hard. After that, I lost the entire season. I was thinking about quitting the sport for good. But coach Alexander Bayborodov from Nizhny Tagil helped me to believe in myself again.

I want to thank him for this. He and my current personal coach in Nordic Combined, Denis Tishagin, have done a lot for me. If not for them, then I would have left the sport. I am so lucky that I have a person at my back who I can trust 100 %. He will not leave me if something happens to me.

Most likely, you do not have problems with ski jumping. What about your cross-country shape?

Nadymova: Of course, when I was a child learned how to cross-country ski at school. But, when I started ski jumping, I did not ski for five or six years. So I had to re-learn the basics and technique. Yes, it was hard for me. And now it's still difficult.

What do you think about your results on the Continental Cup stage in Rena (Norway), when you were first and second?

Nadymova: Everything went well that weekend. Thanks to my coaches and the wax servicemen for the work and the great preparation of my skis. Without their help, there would not be these results. Of course, the level of the Continental Cup has been very high. I had good jumps and perfect race.

What is your goal for the final COC stage in Nizhny Tagil?

Nadymova: I want to keep the leader bib!

Andrey Kascha