Finland sets up “Project 2026” women’s development team

The Finnish Nordic Combined national team teams have been supplemented with the youth and development teams, following the Finnish Olympic Committee's support decisions in late May. The biggest change can seen in Women’s Nordic Combined: seven athletes have been nominated to are build their path toward the 2026 Olympics under coach Lasse Moilanen.

The women’s team training framework builds on the coaching skills that have been followed in the men’s national teams for a long time - now, however, with the new emphasis on ski jumping coaching that Falko Krismayr brings as a new jumping coach.

The age distribution of the women’s team is large,  athletes are between 13 and 17 years old. Lasse Moilanen, the coach of the Project 2026 team, highlights the mapping of the team's development phase and the start of individual coaching.

"It has to be noted that the team is really young and the age distribution is huge. We saw a huge potential and it is therefore great that the group was formed. We can now move forward tailored exactly to the needs of this team , "says Moilanen.

In Nordic Combined, with its difficult balance of two different sports, finding the optimal training for everyone requires investment.

"Now we have our own plan, coach and budget with the women. We also work well in terms of information sharing with the men's national teams, but we are able to invest better in young athletes in the development stage," Moilanen continues.

In addition to the Women's Project 2026 group, a Nordic Combined “Challenger Group”, cooperating with the Finnish Defense Forces Sports School, a youth national team and a perspective group were now selected.

The priorities of group coaching are good joint training, both quantitatively and qualitatively, especially in endurance training, as well as support measures that develop jumping and training from several different types. The youth national team places special emphasis on the practice of jumping, and the goal is to continue the good trend in jumping, to develop physical and mental abilities to jump to the international standard.

Antti Kuisma and Jouni Kaitainen, the youth Olympic coaches (NOVs) operating in Vuokatti, are responsible for coaching the challenger group, the youth national team and the perspective group.

Nordic Combined teams 2020-2021 (in addition to the a-national team)

Challenger group (3)

Atte Kettunen
Olli Salmela
Jesse Pääkkönen

Coaches: Antti Kuisma and Jouni Kaitainen

Youth National Team (6)
Otto Niittykoski
Waltteri Karhumaa
Rasmus Ähtävä
Timi Heiskanen
Herman Happonen
Arsi Tietäväinen

Coaches: Antti Kuisma and Jouni Kaitainen

Project 2026 (7)
Alva Thors
Annamaija Aries
Minja Korhonen
Nonna Laitinen
Hertta Luoma
Julia Äikiä
Selina Kähkönen

Coach: Lasse Moilanen

Perspective group
Valtteri Holopainen
Erno Tietäväinen
Eeli Keränen
Juho Ojala
Jere Kukkonen
Peter Räisänen
Eemeli Kurttila
Elli Seppänen
Anna Kerko
Elsa Thors
Vuokko Hyvärinen

Coaches: Jouni Kaitainen and Antti Kuisma