Athletes of the Week: Tara Geraghty-Moats (USA) & Jakob Lange (GER)

The choices of today’s Athletes of the Week are not very surprising, given the results of the first Continental Cup weekend in Park City (USA). Both Germany’s Jakob Lange and USA’s Tara Geraghty-Moats swept the wins in all three events, from Individual Gundersens to Mass Starts and back.

What made them Athletes of the Week is not solely their results and performances in the competitions. For both athletes, it is also the way they ended up standing on the top spots of the podium.

For more than a year, Geraghty-Moats has been the measuring stick for all Nordic Combined women, lending her voice and personality to a sport in which women have to make up for a lot of lost time. In the face of much adversity, namely her sport not existing formally for much of her active career, Geraghty-Moats persevered and stuck with what was her dream: competing in Nordic Combined. Her way lead her from the Biathlon Junior World Championships to the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup but finally home to Nordic Combined.

Such a detour to the Viessmann FIS Ski Jumping World Cup in Lillehammer (NOR) the weekend before the Women’s Nordic Combined season began in the U.S. almost toppled serial winner Geraghty-Moats this year. A horrific crash in the qualification brought bruises, stiffness and a painful rib but luckily no major injuries. Once back on home soil, Geraghty-Moats laughed her accident in the face, got back up on the jumping hill plus on the cross-country track and showed that she is still the woman to beat in Nordic Combined, in spite of a hurting body and eventual fears.

Also Jakob Lange had to walk through a long dark period in his career. When he burst on the scene in 2013, first triumphs followed soon: a podium in the Continental Cup, first World Cup starts, a team medal at the FIS Junior World Ski Championships in 2013, a silver medal at year later and another team bronze and individual silver and bronze in 2015 established him as a young athlete to watch in the strong German team.

But disaster struck for Lange: an ACL tear in Seefeld in 2016 sidelined the German for a year and in the season 2017/18, he had to fully step back from sports due to a metabolic disease. He fought his way back and returned to competing in December 2018. A year later, Lange claimed his first-ever Continental Cup wins in Park City.

For their fearlessness and perseverance in dark times, Tara Geraghty-Moats and Jakob Lange are our Athletes of the Week!