Austrian team holds first camps in Faak and Ramsau am Dachstein

After the Covid-19 measues have been relaxed in Austria, the Austrian Nordic Combined team has been able to have their two first training camps of the year… all with the correct distancing measures, of course.

Last week, the team held its first endurance camp of the year at Ramsau am Dachstein, using the glacier area 3000 metres above sea-level to collect some more kilometres on cross-country skis.

“We are making use of the great snow conditions here”, says cross-country coach Jochen Strobl. ”At the beginning of last week, some of the athletes made some jumps on the hill here as they were well-rested and focussed. From Wednesday on, however, the focus was on basic endurance and roller skiing technique and, depending on what we did, training sessions lasted multiple hours. In the afternoons, we continued with running or roller-skiing. We definitely felt that the athletes enjoyed training as a group and being back at a training camp.”

After the first training camp at Faak am See two weeks ago was fully dedicated to ski jumping training, the beginning of the week of this camp also had comprehensive endurance testing on the treadmill to measure progress in training. Two athletes joined the team at this camp again: Mario Seidl, who is recovering from his ACL tear last summer and Franz-Josef Rehrl, who sat the first camp of the season out as he became a father.

“I am so happy to be back with the team”, Seidl said. “I invested a lot of time in rehabilitation and due to the Corona situation, we had to train alone as well. Now we can finally train together and exchange experiences! My knee is doing very well, we are nine months after surgery right now. I don’t have any restrictions in terms of flexibility and movement or for endurance training anymore but of course, in terms of strength, I am missing a couple of percents. But to be back with the team is a big step. What is still missing is the step back to the jumping hill, this will follow in the next weeks of months, depending on which kind of signals my body will give me.”