Season 2018/19 - the biggest winners, the ones to watch...

Athletes of the Season

Jarl Magnus Riiber (NOR)
With 12 season victories, two gold and one silver medal, the 21-year-old proved all prophecies hailing him as the man to beat in Nordic Combined in the future right. Matching Hannu Manninen’s record of 12 victories per season, the Norwegian secured his first-ever crystal globe already in Klingenthal (the first Norwegian after Bjarte Engen Vik in 1999 to achieve this) and then proceeded to end another long drought by winning the first Norwegian gold medal at World Championships after their Team Event success in Oberstdorf in 2005 and Bjarten Engen Vik’s individual triumph in 2001. But he also had to overcome adversity to get there, thinking back at Ramsau’s unlucky jumping event in which snow fell into the inrun track right before his jump or a less than stellar start into the World Championships in Seefeld with “only” rank five. For whatever will come next in Nordic Combined, Riiber has set the bar high.

Tara Geraghty-Moats (USA)
On a similar winning streak as the men’s dominator, Jarl Riiber, Tara Geraghty-Moats was the woman to beat on the Continental Cup with ten victories in eleven events. Only an illness held her back from the start in one event in the USA, everywhere else Geraghty-Moats proceeded to show how Ladies’ Nordic Combined can look like. Having an advantage in terms of age and years of training in a multitude of different sports like Cross-Country Skiing, Biathlon and Ski Jumping, the 25-year-old worked relentlessly to lift up and inspire her younger competitors and is an instrumental figure in building up the ladies’ side of the Nordic Combined community.

Winners

World Cup victories in the winter of 2018/19 went to: Jarl Magnus Riiber (12), Franz-Josef Rehrl (2), Mario Seidl (2) Jørgen Graabak (2), Johannes Rydzek (1), Vinzenz Geiger(1), Bernhard Gruber (1). The Nations Cup went to Norway for the second year in a row and Franz-Josef Rehrl and Alessandro Pittin took the Best Jumper and Best Skier Trophy victories.

In the Ladies’ Continental Cup, Tara Geraghty-Moats won 10 events and Gyda Westvold Hansen the remaining one.

Breakthroughs of the Season

For Mario Seidl, Franz-Josef Rehrl and Vinzenz Geiger, the winter brought their first-ever World Cup victories. Especially Rehrl and Seidl truly ascended to the top athletes of the winter with Rehrl also winning the Best Jumper Trophy due his incredible level of ski jumping plus three World Championship bronze medals plus finishing third in the World Cup overall standings. Seidl took his first major title with the Nordic Combined TRIPLE victory and finished the season on the sixth position overall. Next to the two Austrians, Norwegian Espen Bjørnstad impressed with consistent top results and entered the Top Ten of the World Cup standings with rank nine as well.

Mr. Consistency

Even though he claimed no victory this winter, Akito Watabe’s consistency is a thing to be admired. Five podium positions this winter had the Japanese enter the overall podium again by taking the second place, a feat he achieved for the incredible eighth time in a row this winter.

Athletes to Watch

On the men’s side, Jens Lurås Oftebro NOR), Johannes Lamparter (AUT) and Julian Schmid (GER) impressed. Oftebro came away with two medals from the FIS Junior World Ski Championships in Lahti (FIN) and achieved a strong sixth place in the World Cup event at Holmenkollen (NOR). FIS Junior World Champion Johannes Lamparter went from winning an Alpencup in autumn 2018 to the podium in the Continental Cup in early 2019 to topping the ski jumping result list at the World Cup event in Klingenthal (GER). Fellow Junior World Champions Julian Schmid also impressed with Continental Cup podiums and first World Cup points in his showings.

With a very young starting field on the ladies’ side, many athletes are vying for the big breakthrough in the next few years. This winter, Austria’s Lisa Hirner turned heads with her impressive level of jumping that might translate into top results once the 15-year-old matures into her cross-country strength. Japan’s Anju Nakamura is on the opposite side of the spectrum and impressed with memorable cross-country performances, last but not least her Junior World Championship bronze medal, achieved from starting position 16 on her 19th birthday. Nordic Combined’s first-ever FIS Junior World Champion Ayane Miyazaki is the happy medium between the two. At 16 years of age, the Japanese still has all her career in front of her, yet a balanced mix of ski jumping ability with cross-country prowess had her end up on the podium of every Continental Cup podium she started in.