Men’s Continental Cup season to get underway

Less than a week to go until Nordic Combined’s “second league” and breeding ground for the discipline’s stars of tomorrow, the FIS Continental Cup will get into action as well.

Exactly 10 years after first Nordic Combined Continental Cup events were held in Park City (USA), also this year’s circuit will return to the traditional opening overseas, that has been a fixture on the calendar ever since the World Cup B system was changed to a Continental Cup tour in 2009 (with only one exception in 2016).

Two four events at two venues in the USA, in Steamboat Springs and Park City, will mark the beginning of the Continental Cup winter for men and ladies at the same time. A total of 400 Continental Cup points are on the line in four Individual Gundersen events, two on the HS 75 in Steamboat and two on the HS 100 in Utah’s Olympic Park in Park City.

Live streaming provided by USA Nordic will enable Nordic Combined fans all over the world to follow the events on their own devices again. The live stream will also be available on the FIS website.

After the new year, the men’s tour will continue to Klingenthal (GER), where the new Team Event format with cross-country distances of 5, 2.5, 2.5 and 5 km will be tested for the first time, next to two Individual Gundersen events from the HS 140 in Klingenthal’s Vogtlandarena.

The heavy duty will continue in Ruka (FIN) on the next weekend when another 3 events, again two Individuals and one “new” Team Event will take place on the HS 142 Rukatunturi hill, the biggest jumping hill on the tour.

After one off-weekend to recuperate from the stress of six events in ten days, the younger athletes will be off to the FIS Junior Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti (FIN), while the seniors will head to Planica (SLO) to compete in two Individual Gundersen events on the HS 139.

After the championships, the Continental Cup athletes will unite again and conclude the season two two joint weekends of the men’s and ladies’ Continental Cup in Rena (NOR) and at the season finals in Nizhny Tagil (RUS) at the beginning of March.

The season finals will feature an Individual Gundersen 5 km, a Mass Start and a Final Ind. Gundersen event with two rounds of jumping and 15 km of skiing in store for the athletes.

Continental Cup Calendar Men

Athletes to watch

As it was Austrian-born athletes who won the Continental Cup in the last five years, it is a good guess that they will be strong again this year. After Austrian / Slovenian athlete Tomaz Druml won in 2010 and 2014, World Cup athletes Lukas Greiderer (2015) and Martin Fritz (2016, 2017) left their mark on the tour. Last year’s winner Thomas Jöbstl might be another strong contender this year but also equally fast teammates Paul Gerstgraser and Bernhard Flaschberger might have a say.

Looking at the other nations, Finnish brother pair Wille and Waltteri Karhumaa are growing into their own and collected some more World Cup experience over the past few weeks. For Italy, Aaron Kostner had some good results to show for and teammate Lukas Runggaldier is an old Continental Cup hand. In the German team, Jakob Lange is back from a long forced break due to health issues and will be joined by YOG 2016 winner Tim Kopp, David Welde, Martin Hahn and Simon Hüttel. Japan's Hidefumi Denda knows how a Continental Cup podium looks like as well. Korean one-man team Je-Un Park also returns even after his "home" Olympic Games are over.

The U.S. boys will be out in force to use the home advantage with World Cup athlete Taylor Fletcher spearheading the team, along with Ben Loomis and Jasper Good.