Athlete of the Week: Eric Frenzel (GER)

Even though Jarl Magnus Riiber (NOR) continues to reign and alongside him, Jørgen Graabak (NOR) and Vinzenz Geiger (GER) consolidated their roles as the “Big Three” this winter, the Nordic Combined World Cup is never truly static.

In a remarkable feat, Nordic Combined legend Eric Frenzel managed to raise his level of performance last weekend to reach the overall fifth position behind a, again impressively strong junior Jens Lurås Oftebro (NOR), who promises to rule the upcoming FIS Junior World Championships in Oberwiesenthal (GER).

Curiously, Oberwiesenthal has long been Frenzel’s sportive home but Seefeld (AUT), the host venue of the Nordic Combined TRIPLE since 2014 is the place where Frenzel really shone, many years in a row. Dubbed Frenzel’s “living room”, Seefeld saw him win the TRIPLE consecutive four times and in total, 13 victories went to Frenzel in Seefeld from 2010 to 2017.

Much had changed for Frenzel in the 2019/20 season. Of legendary athletes on the German team, who have been spoilt by success for many years, he was among those struggling the most. Frenzel’s ski jumping skills, for many years important corner stones of his successes, seemed to have stayed in a past era and even though his now very fast cross-country times were his ticket to seven Top Ten results this winter, the 31-year-old seemed to by flying way below the radar.

But Eric Frenzel is a man who does not give up. Who is smart, who stays calm, identifies what needs to be done and once he is close to fixing his issues, uses his chances and any opening given by his competitors mercilessly. Whether it was the good vibes coming from his “living room” or twists and tweaks to his ski jumping technique, Frenzel started the TRIPLE solidly with position 11 (99 metres) and made up four positions in the 5 km cross-country race on Friday.

His time to shine came on Saturday: he jumped incredible 106.5 metres, the longest jump of the day, had his numerous fan club members going crazy and onlookers saw a true vintage Eric Frenzel: sitting in third behind Riiber and his teammate Oftebro. Even though Vinzenz Geiger and Jørgen Graabak were not beatable by Frenzel on the track, the fourth position of the day was his.

Another very decent 99 metre jump set Frenzel up with a delay of +2:12 for his staple, the 15 km race and in true Frenzel form, Espen Bjørnstad and Akito Watabe were no match for him, so that the final fifth place (behind the four athletes mentioned above) belonged to the German.

While still a way to go from his former glory results, the last weekend in Seefeld showed an Eric Frenzel, who tirelessly works to find the key to greatness again. For his efforts, determination and switching on the light at the end of his personal tunnel, Eric Frenzel is our “Athlete of the Week”.