Nordic Combined Awards 2019 with additional ladies’ category

The Nordic Combined Awards that are traditionally handed out at an award ceremony in conjunction with the FIS World Cup finals in Schonach (GER) will return for a new season also in 2018/19 - with an extended programme.

While the men’s World Cup athletes and staff will have the chance to win awards in the categories “Athlete of the Year”, “Rookie of the Year” and “Coach of the Year”, another “Athlete of the Year” award will be dedicated to the best female Nordic Combined athlete on the FIS Continental Cup tour. As soon as the female tour moves up to World Cup level, which is planned for the next years, awards will be given out in all categories for men and ladies and their staff, making the Nordic Combined awards a gender equal event.

Jury Spokesperson Roman Knoblauch: “The development of Ladies’ Nordic Combined is in full swing and therefore it was important to us to also represent and honour their achievements within the framework of this award already this year. Even though this is a good first step, I am looking forward to having them on the programme with a full set of awards as well in the future.”

Next to Eurosport commentator Knoblauch, who returns as jury spokesperson and co-host of the awards show, there are nine other journalists representing nine different countries and territories on the jury. Each of these jury members will have one vote in each category and in the case of an equal amount of votes, the jury spokesperson will get one extra decisive vote.

Three to five athletes can be nominated in each category, the nominations will be published after the World Cup event in Oslo (NOR) and the jury votes for their favourites in the days before the World Cup finals in Schonach.

For the category “Rookie of the Year”, the jury has adjusted the eligibility criteria. Eligible for this award are only young athletes (ideally U21, max U23), who are on their first complete World Cup winter. They must have started in 80% of all World Cup events or more.

In addition, an honorary award for lifetime achievements in Nordic Combined, the Kai Arne Ringen Award, will be handed out by the Club Last Viking, an organisation of all Nordic Combined Technical Delegates, at the ceremony. Past recipients include longstanding FIS Race Director and Nordic Combined legend Uli Wehling (GER) and former Nordic Combined Committee Chairman Harald Aarhus (NOR).

The Nordic Combined Awards ceremony will take place at the 17th of March, 19:00 at the “Haus des Gastes” in Schonach and is open to the public. Members of the media and fans are cordially invited.