June 06, 2014 (Barcelona, Spain) – All of the disciplines have been busy over the past few days with their Committee meetings and Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined were no different with a full agenda in their gatherings.

Ski Jumping © courtesy FIS

The top news coming out of Ski Jumping was the implementation of a new Ski Flying competition format, which shall be implemented for the first time during the upcoming summer Grand Prix to test the system. In the 2014/15 season the new format shall be applied to World Cup level, counting the points of the qualification for the final result for all competitors, also for the ten already pre-qualified athletes. The best 48 qualifiers will move on to the competition.

Meanwhile, the prize money for ladies’ Ski Jumping has been slightly increasedto reward the top 20 athletes and not only 15. The proposal was initiated by the athletes through their Athletes’ Commission representative Sabrina Windmueller. Starting in the coming winter, the prize money for World Cup events will therefor be a minimum of CHF 19’890 per competition (up from CHF 17’940).

Besides these two announcements, there were no surprises in the competition calendars. Next to the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun (SWE), the 4-Hills-Tournament will remain the season highlight for the male jumpers.

All modifications and calendars for summer 2014 and winter 2014/15 can be found here.

Nordic Combined

The biggest news to come out of the meeting was the announcement that the first steps will be taken with Ladies’ Nordic Combined, through the organisation this summer of a training camp alongside two competitions in Obertsdorf (GER) from 26th to 30th August. An impressive 11 nations reported that they would take part in the training camp with athletes and coaches.

Also of high interest was the finalised competition calendar which will go to Council for final approval. The calendars presented were for the 2014 Summer Grand Prix, the 2014/15 World Cup and Continental Cups. New for the upcoming season are stops in Sapporo (JPN) and Liberec (CZE). In addition, a preliminary calendar for 2015/16 was presented.

On the promotional side, an improved pre-event presentation was discussed in addition to enhancing television graphics. Positive TV, website and social media figures were also presented to the Nordic Combined Committee.

2014/15 Nordic Combined Calendars Confirmed

With the 2014 FIS Congress in Barcelona, the final World and Continental Cup calendars for the season of 2014/15 have been confirmed. And while the basics of course stayed the same, there were two open spots in the preliminary World Cup calendar from April which have been filled by now.

Scandinavian Opening
In the first period, three traditional competitions in Scandinavia are waiting for the Nordic Combined athletes with Kuusamo reverting to the resort name of Ruka where the Nordic Opening actually takes place to be listed in the World Cup calendar. After this traditional opening weekend, all three disciplines will then head to Lillehammer, Norway before Nordic Combined goes its own ways and returns to Ramsau am Dachstein the weekend before Christmas.

Second edition of the TRIPLE
In early 2015, it is tradition pure with the two venues of Schonach, Germany and the spectator-rich weekend of Chaux-Neuve, France which gets Nordic Combined hearts pumping. The newly minted World Championships 2019 host Seefeld is of course back on the calendar with the second edition of the Nordic Combined TRIPLE: will this year’s winner Eric Frenzel go for his second TRIPLE trophy or came somebody else take the prestigious object in the season to come?

Return to Japan
After nine years of absence, the Japanese athletes can finally look forward to another home World Cup in Sapporo at the last weekend of January in the third period, before Val di Fiemme, Italy and Liberec, Czech Republic, which are also back on the calendar, offer the last chances for important test before the FIS Nordic Ski World Championships in Falun are on as the second highlight of the Nordic Combined season.

Conclusion of the season
The fight for the overall crystal globe will go into the decisive phase with four last competitions in Scandinavia: as in the last years, Lahti, Trondheim and Oslo are on schedule with a 2-jump, 15 km event at Holmenkollen rounding off the season in style.

Continental Cup calendar with eight venues
The Continental Cup athletes can look forward to 18 competitions in eight different venues in the season 2014/15. The first period consists of the by now traditional opening in Soldier Hollow/Utah Olympic Park for which the final confirmations still has to be given, though. One more competition weekend at Klingenthal before Christmas finishes up the year 2014 before the travels turn to Hoeydalsmo, Falun and Planica for the second period in early 2015.

The Junior athletes will have their highlight at the FIS Junior World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan from the 1st till the 8th of February and the Continental Cup closes its circuit with an Austrian venue, Kuusamo and three competitions in Chaikovskiy at the beginning of March.

You can find the confirmed World Cup calendar here.
Continental Cup calendar here.