“Oberstdorf 2021 is my main goal!”

22-year-old Vinzenz Geiger is continuing the German tradition of developing strong Nordic Combined athletes. With an Olympic gold, World Championship silver and also his first World Cup victory under his belt, things are looking good for the team and clubmate of superstar Johannes Rydzek. For TUESDAY TALK, Geiger reflected on his strong season, the summer events to come and his home World Championships in Oberstdorf on the horizon.

The Summer Grand Prix 2019 is coming closer and closer. Do you already know if you’ll be on start everywhere and how will your time until then look like?

Vinzenz Geiger: I will be on start at the three German venues in Oberwiesenthal, Klingenthal and Oberhof. After that, I’ll see how I feel, how my body reacted and decide if I join the other two venues or not.

In Oberwiesenthal, a Mixed Team event will be on schedule for the first time. What do you expect from this event?

Geiger: I think it will be very interesting. It was bound to come also in Nordic Combined sooner or later and I believe it will be really cool to compete in it. It is hard to make any guesses or estimations about it, though. We all hope that many female athlete from other nations will be on start, so we have many teams competing for the win.

The summer training was in full swing in the last few months and on your social media channels we saw images of cycling in Mallorca and you even competed in a cycling race later on. Tell us a little bit about it.

Geiger: That’s true, I was on the bike quite a bit during spring. We had a training camp in Mallorca with the team and enjoyed riding the beautiful mountain passes, which was really cool.

The race I competed in was the Zötler Gold race in Sonthofen, which took place for the first time and was a nice event. I did not have the ambition to keep up with the best riders, it was more just for fun, to put a bib on at home and just to try. It was a great experience.

Summer training in general is going well. We had a few training camps and made quite a lot of jumps. I have been on holiday for a week a short while ago but now training has started again and we have one last training camp before the Summer Grand Prix starts.

You can look back on a good season with your first World Cup victory and three podium positions, in addition to a silver medal in Seefeld. How do you look back on the last winter?

Geiger: My World Cup victory last season was a huge milestone for me. To just see that you can be the best of everybody was an amazing feeling and it gave me a lot of confidence. Of course, the silver medal was important to me as well. It was my first “real” World Championship and to leave with a medal was fun.

What kind of goals did you set for a season which does not have any title events?

Geiger: I am beginning the season with a very good feeling and just try to connect to my successes of the past winter. I did not set any specific goal. I just would like to stay healthy, deliver a good level of performance and rank as highly as possible in the overall World Cup standings in the end.

In contrast, not only will the season 2020/21 feature a World Championship again but it will even be a home World Championship for you. Would you say taking part in this event and doing well is a long-term goal for you?

Geiger: Definitely. I am so excited for it even now. It will be an amazing event, of that I am sure. I would go as far to say that this is my main goal.