New ideas for the future of Nordic Combined

At the FIS Autumn Meetings in Zurich, new ideas for the future of Nordic Combined were a central topic. The Nordic Combined Executive Board, Committee and coming season’s World Cup Organisers alike came together to discuss new ideas regarding the "face" and “presentation” of the sport in the future.

As in the past season, athletes and fans can look forward to a full calendar of events for the upcoming years. The interest of Organisers to host Nordic Combined competitions is on the rise and given the goal of attracting new audiences, further new venues will likely be added to the World Cup calendar in future.

In terms of the rules, the Final Individual Gundersen as staged at the last competition of the 2012 Summer Grand Prix was discussed by the Executive Board and the existing rules were confirmed. In the coming season, this event will be hosted at Holmenkollen, Oslo as  was planned last season only to fall victim to bad weather. Only the Ttop 30 athletes of the World Cup overall ranking will be eligible to start in this final event, which consists of two jumps and a 15km Cross-Country race. There are plans to integrate this format, the Final Individual Gundersen competition, in the Continental Cup as well. Whilst there were no other changes specific to Nordic Combined, the rules regarding the jumping suits that were slightly modified in the Ski Jumping Committee to allow for the body size plus two cm will also be applied to Nordic Combined.

A promotional feature will be introduced in the upcoming winter season with an Athletes' Zone at the exit gate where the top ten Athletes in the competition standings will stay until the Ski Jumping competition ends. This way, TV and spectators can participate in more happenings around the sport and get closer to the emotions and interactions between the stars of Nordic Combined.

During the Nordic Combined Organisers Seminar FIS Marketing AG, that is now in charge of handling the FIS sponsor visibility on site, advised on how to best use advertising installations to create a new "corporate identity" for the sport in order to strive for a more unified and cleaner picture in the stadium and on TV. The Organisers were also offered insights in the FIS World Snow Day and SnowKidz programmes which can complement World Cup and Continental Cup events to generate interest from future generations in following and taking part in Nordic Combined.

Plans about a so-called "Weekend Challenge" as a new Nordic Combined season highlight were introduced. This is the working title for a three-competition format to be held on one weekend with additional prize money and an overall winner. The Executive Board approved the idea and as a next step, the Sub-Committee for Rules and Officials will work out the exact rules for discussion in the next Nordic Combined Committee meetings, before they are submitted to the Council for final decision in spring 2013.

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