Athlete of the Week: Mario Seidl (AUT)

There can be absolutely no discussion about who our Athlete of the Week is after Austria’s Mario Seidl managed to turn the entire Nordic Combined TRIPLE around and sign his name in the winner’s list as the third Nordic Combined athlete after superstars Eric Frenzel (GER) and Akito Watabe (JPN).

Apparently it took for the TRIPLE to move to France for an Austrian to be on top of the result list, as team- and roommate Franz-Josef Rehrl dominated the first two days of competition, only to be toppled by good friend Seidl on the last day. Going into this TRIPLE, Seidl had one World Cup victory from Ruka (FIN) this season in his records and starting Sunday morning, few spectators and Nordic Combined connoisseurs would have assumed this number would rise on that very day.

One of the strong ski jumpers of the field, Seidl took the victory in a way that is characteristic for his person: with a quiet strength, calm and focussed on what he does best: flying far. “I did not have my top jumps in the last two days, I knew this. They were okay but not my top jumps. I stayed calm and today, I was finally able to show what I am capable of”, Seidl said of his jumping competition after the event.

A dark horse, ranking fifth on both of the first two days of the TRIPLE, the 26-year-old delivered top distances in both rounds of jumping and claimed a 37-second head start on Franz-Josef Rehrl and one minute and 33 seconds on fast skier Fabian Rießle, who held his own in the jumping event as well.

As the final cross-country race is the unusual 15 km distance, it was everybody’s guess if Seidl, not usually know for an excessive cross-country prowess, could carry some of this advantage to the finish line. But similar to the impressive fashion that roommate and fellow great jumper Franz-Josef Rehrl was able to pull off an incredibly strong start - finish victory over the 10 km on the previous day, Seidl rose to the occasion.

Starting out fast, resting in the middle part and picking up speed towards the end of the race again, Seidl showed how a perfect Nordic Combined competition looks like, even if it took some time for him to actually digest his masterpiece competition afterwards.

We’re sure he’ll get used to it, especially with large hills awaiting in Trondheim, Klingenthal and Lahti, and of course, Bergisel in Innsbruck, where precious metals are on the line. But for now, all hats off to the surprise King of Chaux-Neuve, Mario Seidl!