Riiber and Hagen the ‘ones to beat’ in new Nordic Combined season

Norwegian stars Jarl Magnus Riiber and Ida Marie Hagen will again be the ones to beat when the 2024-25 FIS Nordic Combined World Cup season gets under way next week.

Defending men’s champion Riiber, 27, has won the overall title five times in the last six seasons and is chasing a record sixth World Cup crown to move clear of Eric Frenzel (GER), who triumphed for five years in a row from 2012-13 to 2016-17.

Hagen, 24, only won her first World Cup event in December last year in Ramsau (AUT) but it proved a pivotal moment in her rivalry with two-time champion, Gyda Westvold Hansen (NOR), who had won the first three competitions of the season.

Hagen finished with nine victories in the 15 individual events overall as she claimed her first title after finishing second and third in the previous two seasons.

While the women prepare to start their campaign in Lillehammer (NOR) from 6-8 December, the men will launch the Nordic Combined season in Ruka (FIN) next weekend with three Individual events (Compact, Gundersen and a Mass Start).

Riiber’s closest challenger last season, Stefan Rettenegger (AUT), acknowledged the task facing him and the rest of the field.

“Like every year, Jarl will be the one to beat,” said the 22-year-old, who earned 11 podiums to finish second overall last year.

Rettenegger has tipped his younger brother, Thomas Rettenegger, to be a “real candidate” this year. “He is jumping really well and has managed to make that next step in the cross-country,” he added.

Team-mate Johannes Lamparter (AUT), the 2022-23 champion who finished third last season, will also be a contender again, although a knee problem may hamper his prospects in the early part of the season.

“I am really relieved there is no pain anymore after a terrible September where I was not able to do any power training,” he said.

“The cross-country part is working well but I am missing some power, so I am not at 100% yet. But I’m still at a good level and ready to compete. My goal is to be at 100% in Trondheim and fight for every medal I can get.”

Trondheim (NOR) will host the 2025 World Championships from 26 February to 09 March, which promises to be the major highlight of another exciting season.

Before that, both men and women will head from Lillehammer to Ramsau (AUT) for the last competitions of 2024 on the weekend before Christmas, with Mass Start events for both, plus an Individual Compact for the women and a Gundersen for the men.

After a three-week break over the new year period, the World Cup season will resume for everyone in the traditional Nordic Combined venue of Schonach (GER) in mid-January before moving on to Seefeld (AUT).

The Austrian resort will host the first women’s ‘Triple’ in a World Cup from Friday 31 January to Sunday 2 February – featuring a Mass Start, Compact and Gundersen events on successive days.

The athletes will take the results from each day to the next and the first to cross the finish line on day three will take the overall victory.

“It’s more fun to have three competitions in a row, when you are in the flow of competition,” said defending champion Hagen, who won both the Gundersen and Compact events in Seefeld last year.

The World Cup circuit will then return north in early February to Otepää (EST) for a packed weekend, with Mass Start, Individual Gundersen and Compact events for both women and men.

All eyes will then turn towards Trondheim for a two-week festival of winter sports at the World Championships in late February and early March.

“It will showcase just how physically strong the athletes are and how interesting and exciting the sport of Nordic Combined can be,” said FIS Race Director Lasse Ottesen.

The women will have a Mass Start competition as well as an Individual Gundersen, while the men will compete in a Compact event for the first time at the championships, preceding a men’s Team event and Individual Gundersen on the Large Hill.

“The Mixed Team event will also be one of the highlights,” Ottesen said. “That event will be epic.”

Norwegian competitors such as Hagen and Riiber – who will be looking to add to his four individual golds and four team golds from the three previous World Championships - may feel the pressure of heightened expectations on home snow.

But Norway head coach Jan Schmid will be trying to keep his athletes firmly focused on the task at hand. “I was in Oslo in 2011 (where he won two Team bronze medals) and it will feel big, but that has to feel OK,” he said. “You have to prepare them for this being something they will remember for the rest of their lives.

Austria head coach Christoph Bieler also has good memories of Oslo that he would like his current crop of athletes to re-create. “Our last Team title was in 2011, so it would be a dream to win the Team competition again,” he said.

After the thrills of the World Championship have subsided, there will be another milestone in the women’s Nordic Combined when they head to Oslo a week later to compete on a Large Hill in the World Cup for the first time.

“It is the next step for the development of the women’s programme,” added Ottesen. “It will contribute a lot and hopefully make it easier in future to find good locations and fill the calendar even more easily, as the women are able to compete on large hills as well.”

Oslo will see the last of the women’s 14 World Cup competitions for the season, while the men’s events will conclude back in Finland with two events at Lahti on 21 and 22 March.

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Jarl Magnus Riiber (NOR) will be aiming for a record sixth World Cup men’s overall title, which would take him clear on his own ahead of Eric Frenzel (GER), who won five consecutive titles from 2013 to 2017. Riiber won four in a row from 2019 to 2022 before reclaiming his crown last season to equal Frenzel’s tally.

• Riiber has the most individual World Cup race wins – 73 - of all time, among 98 podiums in all. He won a record 16 events last season, while runner-up Stefan Rettenegger (AUT) earned 11 podiums but still awaits his first World Cup victory.

• This will be the fifth season of the women’s World Cup. Gyda Westvold Hansen (NOR) has finished in the top two in each of the last four years, winning the title twice in 2022 and 2023.

• Hansen’s compatriot Ida Marie Hagen (NOR) won her first World Cup title last season after finishing second in 2022 and third in 2023. The duo helped Norway win the women’s Nations Cup for a fourth straight year, while Austria pipped Norway to the men’s title, ahead of 2023 winners Germany.