“It’s time to get started and to see what the season will bring!”

Former Ski Jumper Michael Neumayer is starting into his second season as the FIS Nordic Combined Continental Cup Coordinator. Before the season begins in Park City (USA), Neumayer talked about his expectations, possible favourites and the Continental Cup development in the future.

You are starting into a new season with nine different COC venues and on top you have the highlights of the Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne and the FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships in Oberwiesenthal (GER) to look forward to. With what kind of expectations do you look towards the season 2019/20?

Michael Neumayer: Naturally**,** I am really looking forward to the new season. We have a season with many great events for men and women coming up. 19 competitions are on schedule for our men, 12 for our women and I can only say thank you to our organisers, who use many voluntary hours, diligence and hard work to give us the opportunity to host these events.

The Olympic premiere of Women’s Nordic Combined at the Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020 is a really important sign for the Nordic Combined sport. It showcases where we want to go with our women: to the Olympic Games in 2026! It’s fantastic that the young athletes can already present themselves on an Olympic stage in 2020 already and begin the path to where we all want to go together.

I am also really excited for the Mixed Team premiere at the FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships in Oberwiesenthal (GER). It will be a huge highlight to see women and men fight for medals together in one team.

Now it’s time to get started and to see what the season will bring. It’s always really interesting to see how the athletes have developed over the summer.

A first highlight will be the first-ever COC Mixed Team event held in Eisenerz (AUT). What do you expect of this event?

Neumayer: Eisenerz takes place one week before the FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships in Oberwiesenthal, so it will be an important test. Looking back on the experiences from last year and also from my predecessor, Eisenerz is a great organiser who does great work, so it was easy to chose them to host this important competition.

The Organising Committee is looking forward to it, as are the athletes. I think it will be a really exciting competition. I am sure that even the athletes who will not make the team will be watching and doing their best to cheer on their teammates from the sidelines. I am really looking forward to it.

On the women’s side, USA’s Tara Geraghty-Moats has dominated the last winter. Do you think the other athletes will be able to close the gap to her a little in this season?

Neumayer: First of all, I’d like to send my best wishes to Tara for a speedy recovery after her serious crash in the Viessmann FIS Ski Jumping World Cup qualification in Lillehammer last weekend. Luckily, she did not sustain any serious injuries as far as I know but we will of course have to see how fit she will be for the upcoming competitions in Park City.

In general, of course I’d like to see other athletes progress and close the gap to Tara a little more. She has many training years behind her already which puts her in a strong position compared to some of the younger athletes. But also they had one more year of training now. Over time, they will develop and get stronger as well.

We in FIS and the National Ski Associations are working towards increasing the starting fields for the women and as this development progresses, we will also see tighter competitions on the women’s side.

Who are you watching out for on the men’s side? Do you have any guesses as to who could play a big role in the Continental Cup this winter?

Neumayer: In the COC, it’s not that easy to pick favourites ahead of the season. If an athlete has a good phase, he unlocks more World Cup quota places for his team and is usually rewarded with World Cup starts.

I am sure the big nations will fight for these quota spots and looking at what Team Norway has already been showing in the World Cup until now, they will be a force to reckon with also in the COC. I hope that other nations will be in the mix as well: Austria, Germany, Japan, maybe even some of the smaller nations.

We will see great competitions, that’s for sure but if I can make one prediction: we will not have the same athlete on the top spot of the podium in all competitions.

Traditionally, the Continental Cup has been starting in the USA for the last couple of years. What is special about the competitions in Park City?

Neumayer: With Park City, we have an organiser who is very keen to host the Continental Cup season opener. Park City is located 2000 metres above sea level and it is quite safe in terms of snow because if it. The cross-country race will take place in Soldier Hollow at 1600 metres above sea level.

The altitude definitely is a challenge for the athletes and some of the strong cross-country skiers might have an advantage because of it. Nevertheless, I am really happy to have this great organiser. They are really giving their all to host these events. It’s also really great that they will provide livestreaming of all three events again, so that online audiences can follow these competitions as well.

How will the winter continue after the opening event in Park City?

Neumayer: After this first weekend in the US, we have a last test event for the FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships in Oberwiesenthal (GER) on schedule with two events for the men. After that the first period is already done and we will be able to see who is shaping up for some World Cup starts.

Looking into the future, in which direction is the Continental Cup developing?

Neumayer: A big challenge for me and for FIS is to develop the Continental Cup to feature even more events for men and women. It will be my big task to work on this and maybe find two or three organisers more to fill up the calendar and offer an attractive programme for the Continental Cup athletes throughout the entire winter.

It is of course important to find and retain a good balance between making the competition weekend as attractive as possible but still financially feasible for the organisers. This will be the big challenge for the future to develop Nordic Combined’s base. It is clear that without the Continental Cup as a breeding ground for the future stars of the sport, the World Cup cannot function properly as well.

I am very excited to work on this big task for the future and look forward to rising to the challenge.