Continental Cup season about to kick off

The Men’s Nordic Combined Continental Cup season 2020/21 is about to kick off in Utah (USA) this weekend. Just like the previous year the ski jumping part will take place at the Olympic Park in Park City, before the teams move on to the Olympic venue in Soldier Hollow for cross country skiing.

A total number of three competitions will be held this weekend: a 10km Individual Gundersen race on Friday, followed by a 10km Mass Start race on Saturday and another 10km Individual Gundersen race on Sunday. All events will be live streamed globally. The stream can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/fisnordiccombined/live/.

Unfortunately, Covid-19 doesn’t stop at Continental Cup gates either, which is why only a very limited number of teams took the trip to the United States and the originally planned Nordic Combined women’s competitions had to be cancelled. Altogether 30 athletes from seven nations will fight for the victory and a World Cup quota spot for the next period.

One of the athletes to keep an eye on this weekend, is most likely to be Jakob Lange. The 25-year-old German was not only able to win all three competitions in Utah last season, but also the overall Continental Cup with a total number of 1148 points. Two weeks ago Lange competed at Viessmann FIS Nordic Combined World Cup in Ruka and ended up on 25th and 28th place.

“I can’t deny that I am amongst the favorites this weekend. However, just because I won all competitions in Park City/Soldier Hollow last season doesn’t necessarily mean that I’ll be able to repeat it. I expect the level in ski jumping to be a lot higher than last year and especially with my teammate Julian Schmid and Vid Vrhovnik from Slovenia, I definitely have two very strong rivals. Of course, it is still my goal to be on top of the podium and get the quota spot for the Viessmann FIS Nordic Combined World Cup”, says Lange.

Schmid was Nordic Combined Junior World Champion in Lahti 2019 and mostly competed in World Cup last season. His biggest success was a 14th place at the 10km Individual Gundersen event in Ruka 2019. Vrhovnik could also win the gold medal at the Nordic Combined Junior World Championships in Kandersteg 2018. Unfortunately, he suffered a knee injury last winter and had to end the season a lot earlier than originally planned. It will be interesting to see if the 21-year-old Slovenian was able to find back to his former strength over the summer.

Last season’s Nation’s Cup winner Norway (4333 points) won’t be competing in the U.S. this weekend. A total number of eight victories and four podium sweeps went to the Scandinavians led by Lars Ivar Skaarset in 2019/2020. Germany’s Jakob Lange with eight victories and Austria’s Manuel Einkemmer with one victory were the only two athletes other than the Norwegians, who were able to win a competition.

“I believe that the most important aspect for us is to make some progress in ski jumping. If we are not that far behind after jumping, it will be harder for the Norwegians to race however they like, tactically speaking. At the first Continental Cup event in Oberwiesenthal last season, I ended up on fourth place behind three Norwegians, who were able to make arrangements during the race, what made it extremely difficult for me. I’m convinced that our cross country shape will be good enough to challenge them if we’re close enough after the ski jumping part”, says Einkemmer, who’s currently preparing for the Viessmann FIS Nordic Combined World Cup in Ramsau next week and therefore didn’t take the trip to Utah either.

After the competition weekend in the U.S. the Continental Cup will take a four-week break before continuing in Klingenthal/Germany in mid-January (15th – 17th). One week later in Eisenerz/Austria (January 22nd – 24th) also the Nordic Combined women’s Continental Cup will get into action and a total number of three competitions (two Individual Gundersen and one Mixed Team Event) will be held for each gender. In the beginning of February (6th – 7th) the men will then move on to Lahti/Finland, where also the Junior World Championships will be held right afterwards (February 8th – 17th). Both women and men will then travel to Rena/Norway (Date is still to be confirmed) before the season will be concluded in Nizhny Tagil/Russia in mid-March (12th – 14th).

To sum it up, the FIS Nordic Combined Continental Cup season promises a lot of excitement.