Nordic Combined Committee online meeting outcomes

The Nordic Combined Committee held its first-ever online meeting last week and the two main topics on the agenda were the finalisation of the Women’s World Cup rules before the all-important debut planned for this winter and the presentation of the calendars for the summer and winter seasons to come.

After presentations on Nordic Combined’s performance last season by Race Director Lasse Ottesen (World Cup), Michael Neumayer (Continental Cup), Uwe Mühln (Youth Cup), Günter Csar (Officials) and Silke Tegethof (Media), a number of new proposals and measures planned in the longer-term future were discussed with the Committee.

Guiding principles in the creation of the Women’s World Cup rules were to have equal rules for men and women whenever possible. So, the setup will feature the blue and red bibs for the best jumper and best skier, the yellow bib, including overall prize money for the best in the World Cup standings at the end of the season.

The rules differ in some points, mainly quotas and prize money. Here, the economic hardships, organisers and National Ski Associations will face also due to the Corona crisis also had to be taken into consideration. For the prize money, a raise, expanding prize money from the Top 10 to the Top 15 athletes, has already been planned for the second World Cup season next year, with further improvements to be made in the years to come.

FIS Secretary General Sarah Lewis presented the Committee with common guidelines and principles of calendar planning and decision making processes for the season to come.

Since its presentation at the spring meetings in April, the Summer Grand Prix calendar 2020 has been adapted to include only two venues: Tschagguns (AUT) will open the summer on the 19th and 20th of September and Oberstdorf (GER) will host last test events for the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2021 on the 25th and 26th of September. Both venues will host two Individual Gundersen events for men and women each, making this the first fully equal summer calendar in Nordic Combined.

Adapted Summer Grand Prix calendar 2020

The winter calendars are unchanged so far but multiple and longer-term deadlines to confirm, change or cancel events have been introduced. Different calendars with Plan B or C solutions have been created and will be communicated in due time, should the need arise due to Corona-restrictions in the coming winter.

World Cup calendar Men
World & Continental Cup calendar Women
Continental Cup calendar Men
Youth Cup Calendar m/f