OPA Alpencup opened for all nations in Nordic Combined

Big news for young Nordic Combined athletes all over the world: At their online conference last week, the Presidents of the ski associations organised in the OPA Alpencup organisation approved the OPA Nordic Commission’s suggestion to open the competitions for all athletes, also from outside the Alpine countries from now on.

While the series had been open to female athletes from all countries in Nordic Combined already, on the men’s side, the participating countries were limited to largely the Alpine countries only. From now on, OPA nations will limit their quotas to 14 athletes per country, while non-OPA nations will be allowed to start with four athletes each. They will be part of all cup standings in the same way as the OPA nations and subject to the same rules.

At the same time, more of the OPA Nordic Combined and Ski Jumping events will be separated, with events then open to hosting male and female athletes of the same discipline at the same venues.

The changes are effective immediately, which means all competition held this autumn will already be subject to these new regulations.

“This next step in the development of the OPA Alpencup as the most important series for junior athletes aged 12 - 19 is a very positive one for Nordic Combined as a whole”, says OPA Coordinator Nordic Combined and FIS Youth Cup Coordinator Uwe Mühln. “Not only will men and women of the same discipline compete together more from now on but we are also including young athletes from all over the world who did not have access to a regional international competition series before. We see it as our responsibility to develop Nordic Combined as a discipline and we hope we can encourage many more nations to become a part of the Nordic Combined family in the future.”