Men’s and Women’s World Cup weekend in Otepää cancelled

The Nordic Combined World Cup weekend in Otepää (EST), which was scheduled to take place from January 1st to 3rd and feature two World Cup events for men and women each has to be cancelled.

With sincere regret, the Local Organising Committee and the Estonian Ski Association reported that the Estonian Ski Association Board has decided not to organise the Nordic Combined Word Cup event in Otepää.

This is due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases in Estonia and financial complications which accumulated over the summer and into the winter, mainly in the areas of TV production, sponsoring of the event and rising costs due to Covid-19 prevention measures.

“We, in the Estonian Ski Association are grateful to FIS for the opportunity to organise the Nordic Combined World Cup stage in  Otepää (EST) on the 1st to 3rd of January 2021. We were ready to organise the World Cup competitions in Estonia and have already put large efforts in and made all possible preparations”, says Ago Markvardt, Member of the Board of the Estonian Ski Association and Secretary General of the Otepää Organising Committee.

“This was not an easy decision for us, but due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases in Estonia and the additional stresses on the budget, we felt we had no choice”, Markvardt continued.

“It is of course a blow for us to lose Otepää, especially in our Women’s World Cup premiere season. We will now focus all of our efforts on replacing the event and ensure a great debut season for our women, even if the Covid-19 situation does not make things easy this winter”, FIS Race Director Lasse Ottesen added. “We will inform you about a possible replacement as soon as possible.”