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Nordic World Ski Championships: German Combined win World Championship silver in Planica

Starting runner Erik Frenzel (l.) overtook the Austrians with Martin Fritz and brought the DSV team closer to Norway, which was leading after the jumping.

Photo: AFP/Jure Makovec

Excitement, controversial scenes and a record – this Nordic Combined World Championship race in Planica really had it all. After a dramatic final round, the German team won silver in the end, with the dominant Norwegians winning. With his 18th World Championships medal, Eric Frenzel crowned himself as the most successful Nordic skier of all time at World Championships. “I’m not even thinking about the record yet. I’m still far too involved in this unbelievable race for that. But I think we can be very happy with silver,” said the 34-year-old from Saxony with a smile.

After Frenzel had brought the team up to the Norwegians, who were leading after the jump, and Vinzenz Geiger and Johannes Rydzek ran together with the Scandinavians, the decision was made in the last corner just before the finish when the German anchor Julian Schmid and high-flyer Jarl Magnus Riiber stepped on their skis several times in the battle for the top. The Norwegian used this to create the decisive gap. The completely frustrated Schmid – he has won silver three times at this World Championships – faltered in second place, nine seconds behind. »Riiber has washed all waters. That was bordering on unsportsmanlike and a reason for us to protest. We lost the race there because we wanted to win gold,” said national coach Hermann Weinbuch.

Despite the anger, the race was an advertisement for Nordic Combined, because for a long time France was also involved in the fight for gold alongside the two top nations and the third-placed Austrians. An important signal: Since the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to include women in the 2026 Olympic program and at the same time threatened to cancel the men’s competitions from 2030, the traditional sport has been in turmoil.

As before every race this winter, the world’s best combined athletes collectively formed an X with their skis at the World Championships as a protest in the air. It stands for »no eXception«, i.e. »no exception«. Because Nordic Combined is the only sport in which there are no competitions for women at the Olympic Winter Games. How to promote the development of the winter duels – there are not enough high-performing participating nations – is an important topic for the future of the sport. Another is the modernization of the traditional sport. IOC sports director Kit McConnell had criticized the “lack of attractiveness of the sport”.

In fact, there is only one format in the individual competitions at major events such as these World Championships and the Olympics: a ski jump from the normal and large hill is followed by cross-country skiing over ten kilometers. The exciting cross-country races, like Vinzenz Geiger’s Olympic victory in Beijing, achieve top ratings on television, at least in Germany, but that’s not enough for the IOC. Young sports with an affinity for TV, such as freestyle and ski cross, are in trend. In 2026, ski mountaineering will also celebrate its Olympic premiere, a kind of sporty variant of touring.

“We need new ideas on how we can inspire even more people for this traditional sport, which embodies the origin of skiing,” says national coach Hermann Weinbuch. He has some spectacular ideas up his sleeve. One of them is the “Cross-Kombi”, a mixture of cross-country sprint and ski cross in the trail. Depending on their performance in ski jumping, the combined athletes would start in heats of eight on a hilly and winding course. The best of each heat would qualify for the next round until after the finale the winner would be determined. Spectacular action, but also falls would be guaranteed in such a format.

»The show effect would be great, but such a race could also inspire younger people. Both the athletes and the spectators on the TV screen,” believes Weinbuch. The soon to be 63-year-old innovator calls his second idea »Power Race«. In this format, the time intervals for cross-country skiing would not be calculated according to the points in ski jumping, as is usually the case, but according to the placement. The athletes could start the race five seconds one after the other, one minute after the leader, the rest of the group would follow. “A lot more action and duels would be guaranteed here, too, many more athletes would be in the picture,” says Weinbuch. In order to save his sport, he is also willing to compromise on the fairness of the competitions: “We simply need more participants, more interest.”

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