Around the World
Tradition, new perspectives and Olympic legacy
While the Nordic Combined Summer Grand Prix has been a fixture on the calendars for the last 15 years, seldom has one edition been as colourful as the upcoming one. With the venue of Oberwiesenthal and Oberstdorf, Germany, the two most traditional venues are on the calendar again and will offer their usual great conditions with many spectators, the new venue Montafon will await the best Nordic Combined athletes with new perspectives and a return to Sochi, Russia carries on the Olympic legacy of the 2014 Games.
The opener in Oberwiesenthal has become traditional, yet, the organisers are in the middle of a big modernisation phase of their facilities and this year, the athletes can look forward to a new athletes village next to the spectator area next to the usual winner’s cake made by sponsor Café König.
The second stop in Montafon will be a premiere for the organisers who are known for hosting Snowboard and Freestyle World Cups. After getting to know the junior Nordic Combined athletes at the European Youth Olympic Festival in 2015, it will now be the first time that a high-level Nordic Combined event uses the new jumping facilities in Tschagguns and for the cross-country race, the athletes and spectators can get up close and personal in the roller-ski race right through the town center of Partenen.
In Oberstdorf, the Summer Grand Prix will be joined by many Nordic Combined boys and girls of the Youth category who are fighting for their respective Summer Grand Prix victories along the senior athletes and can enjoy the newly overhauled K60 hill in Oberstdorf’s Erdinger Arena. New perspectives will surely also be offered by the first test of the adapted metre value system for large hills for which Oberstdorf will offer first insights.
But contrary to the past years, this is not where the summer stops: in early October the athletes will head back to Sochi, venue of the 2014 Olympic Games, to race on the Olympic RusSki Gorki facilities once more. The overall winner of the summer 2015 will be determined here.
In contention definitely are freshly minted double German national champion Johannes Rydzek who has been the King of the Summer in the past year and always shone with strong results in the summer months. But 2013 joint winners Akito Watabe from Japan and Bernhard Gruber, Austria will not make it easy on Rydzek to take the title again. But also Rydzek’s teammates Björn Kircheisen and Eric Frenzel are a force to be reckoned with. With no international competitions since Mid-March, the first meeting of the world elite is promising to be anything but boring.
The opener in Oberwiesenthal has become traditional, yet, the organisers are in the middle of a big modernisation phase of their facilities and this year, the athletes can look forward to a new athletes village next to the spectator area next to the usual winner’s cake made by sponsor Café König.
The second stop in Montafon will be a premiere for the organisers who are known for hosting Snowboard and Freestyle World Cups. After getting to know the junior Nordic Combined athletes at the European Youth Olympic Festival in 2015, it will now be the first time that a high-level Nordic Combined event uses the new jumping facilities in Tschagguns and for the cross-country race, the athletes and spectators can get up close and personal in the roller-ski race right through the town center of Partenen.
In Oberstdorf, the Summer Grand Prix will be joined by many Nordic Combined boys and girls of the Youth category who are fighting for their respective Summer Grand Prix victories along the senior athletes and can enjoy the newly overhauled K60 hill in Oberstdorf’s Erdinger Arena. New perspectives will surely also be offered by the first test of the adapted metre value system for large hills for which Oberstdorf will offer first insights.
But contrary to the past years, this is not where the summer stops: in early October the athletes will head back to Sochi, venue of the 2014 Olympic Games, to race on the Olympic RusSki Gorki facilities once more. The overall winner of the summer 2015 will be determined here.
In contention definitely are freshly minted double German national champion Johannes Rydzek who has been the King of the Summer in the past year and always shone with strong results in the summer months. But 2013 joint winners Akito Watabe from Japan and Bernhard Gruber, Austria will not make it easy on Rydzek to take the title again. But also Rydzek’s teammates Björn Kircheisen and Eric Frenzel are a force to be reckoned with. With no international competitions since Mid-March, the first meeting of the world elite is promising to be anything but boring.
Source: fis-ski.com
