France’s Maxime Laheurte has to adjust to many new situations this spring: not only has his brother become the head coach of the French team and with the retirement of Jason Lamy Chappuis and Sebastien Lacroix, the team structure will look quite differently but he is also the new athlete representative for Nordic Combined after elections took place last winter. In TUESDAY TALK, he reports about the first activities in both fields.

You have just been elected the new Athletes’ Commission member for Nordic Combined. How have your first experiences been?

Maxime Laheurte: It has been a great experience for me to go to the FIS Calendar Conference in Varna. I had a full day meeting with the other athletes' commission members. Those who have experience in this commission had a lot of tips and good advice for the new members. I learned a lot about the FIS organisation and this is certainly very useful to represent the athletes.

Then I took part in the Nordic Combined committee session. This is where athletes can be heard through my voice. I also had opportunities to talk with a lot of people who are stakeholders in nordic skiing in different ways.

One big part of the rule changes for the next winter will be a modified procedure for the equipment testing and also the changed metre value on the large hill (at least as a test phase). What do you think about it as an athlete?

Laheurte: I think it is a real necessity to improve the equipment testing procedure. There were too many opportunities for the teams to bend and stretch the rules with the old system.

Changing the meter value on the large hill is also a good idea. Different analyses show that the cross-country skiing part is taking more and more space in Nordic Combined. This rule change won't change a lot but it could give some more interest and importance to the jumping part.

With the French team, you already had a first training camp in Quiberon focussed on team building and cohesion. Tell us a little bit about what you did on location and how it was to work with the new coaching team?

Laheurte: We had a great camp in Quiberon! None of us knew this place but the facilities at the sailing school were great. In the morning we had some serious training time at the gym and on the bike. In the afternoons we used the ocean for some kayaking, surfing, paddling and sailing activities.

My brother is the new head coach and he called a cross country specialist, Cyril, as an assistant. He is going to help us improving our skiing part by bringing his experience. For now, it is going very well!

Do you also feel a little bit of pressure, now that you and Francois Braud are the remaining „experienced“ athletes on the team and the French performances rely very much on what you two can achieve?

Laheurte: There will be more expectations for us now than Jason and Seb are not here anymore. That means more pressure but it's not bad. It's time to achieve big things!!

Who of your teammates who were mainly starting in the Continental Cup until now are most likely to make it in the World Cup now, after your opinion?

Laheurte: Hugo Buffard and Théo Hannon already proved that they are able to be competitive on high level. You've also seen Antoine Gerard last season at the World Championships in Falun and he did great! Sam Guy and Geoffrey Lafarge are not in the team anymore but they will fight to be back on the World Cup, the door isn't closed. They are all aware that there are places to take by our side!

What is on schedule for you after the meetings now?

Laheurte: Next we will have a camp in Gerardmer, my home town! It's a great place for training. Then Courchevel and Montafon in July. After that we will focus our training on the Summer Grand Prix and some French competitions.