What the bloody hell is ... Nordic Combined?

Other / Richard Douglas / 15 November 2009 / Leave a Comment

Magnus Moan in action

"The Nordic Combined has always been comprised of ski-jumping and cross-country skiing. The nature of those two disciplines has changed but currently it is a single jump and single 10km race."

Ski-jumping meets cross-country skiing apparently. Richard Douglas fills in the gap's in our knowledge

Do you remember the original Gladiators?

It was that ultra-kitsch light entertainment show-cum-athletic contest that went out on ITV on Saturday nights in the 90s. It was full of cartoon character sportsmen taking on a liquorice all-sorts bag of PE teachers and fitness instructors backed by a foam-fingered crowd at the NEC at Birmingham. It was sport with all the intensity extracted and replaced by silly string.

All things considered, it was really quite crap. And God alone knows why Sky have tried to bring it back in recent years.

Now then, having started this piece with a question and then spent 85 words answering it, you are quite entitled to ask another: what the blue blazes has this got to do with Nordic Combined?

The answer is the "Gundersen Method". No, this is not the way Hunter and Ulrika Jonsson got it on back it in the day. It is a system of defining the winner in a contest whereby it builds to a crescendo. To explain, in Gladiators, the early events just serve to give you a head-start in the final 'Eliminator' race. That concept comes from Gunder Gundersen, a Nordic Combined skier in the 80s, who devised a points-based system to give one competitor an interval start over another for the final race.

Basically this means that, despite being a multi-event sport, the person who crosses the line at the end of the final race is always the winner. Compare that to, say, the decathlon in the Olympics where the winner jogs around the 1,500m with complete disregard to everyone except for the person in the silver medal position.

The Nordic Combined has always been comprised of ski-jumping and cross-country skiing. The nature of those two disciplines has changed but currently it is a single jump and single 10km race. Competitors are awarded two points per metre in the jump and anything between three and 30 for style. Every 15-point gap between competitors in the jumping will equate to one minute at the start of the cross-country.

This season's World Cup starts at the end of the November and will consist of 18 events before the Winter Olympics in February and four after it. Seven countries will act as hosts.

Anssi Koivuranta ([2.52]) won the title last year and is shortest in the nascent Betfair odds to do it again. The Finn has also been an excellent ski-jumper but improved markedly in his racing over recent years since taking on his national coach to look after him. The 21-year-old won his first race as recently as September 2008 but ended up seeing off Magnus Moan ([3.1]) by over 100 points in the overall table.

That was a typical result for the Norwegian nearly man. He has finished second in three of the last four years. He has also picked up silvers and bronze at three World Championship and an Olympics.

Bill Demong ([3.1]) was third last time. At 29, the American is something of a veteran and will be competing in his third Olympics in Vancouver. He took the '10km, large hill' title in the World Championship at Liberec earlier this year and currently appears in commercials for Alka Seltzer on US television.

Ronny Ackerman ([3.1]) is definitely the most experienced of the leading contenders. The 32-year-old has 25 World Cup wins to his name and 70 podium finishes. The German took the World Cup title in 2007-08 interrupting five years of Finnish dominance.

Finally, there's Jason Lamy Chappuis ([3.1]), an American-born also-ran who competes for France these days. He finished third overall two years ago and is unlikely to fare any better this time around.

So there you are, a thumbnail sketch of Nordic Combined - a strange sport because of diversity of its two events. One is about the precision of technique and balance, the other requires raw, unadulterated strength.

Oops, there's me sounding like a voice-over from that Gladiators show. Let's just hope the TV execs never get hold of Nordic Combined. They will probably have dual ski jumpers battling it out in mid-air with pugil sticks.

Perish the thought.