It has to end at some point. The time had come to adopt a different attitude. You should face giants courageously, even if only with a slingshot in your hand, instead of making yourself even smaller – even at the risk of being beaten.
Jarl Magnus Riiber is undoubtedly the giant of this winter sport, a great in the two-man discipline that bears the unwieldy name of Nordic combination. Riiber is so strong that the other combiners regularly despair of him. But now a different tactic was supposed to work in the German team: Eric Frenzel, also a great combiner and successor to Hermann Weinbuch as national coach, had suggested an almost revolutionary idea to his athletes, namely to relax first and stop reminding themselves that Riiber is the big scale, the one that has to be beaten. You could never defeat him, but ultimately only break him – that was the approach.
No, beating Riiber requires looseness and fun, and the DSV team had both on this memorable Saturday, on the opening weekend of the new World Cup season in Kuusamo, Finland. And so Riiber was not only beaten by one of the German show jumpers from Frenzel’s team, but by three. Vinzenz Geiger from Oberstdorf came third, Julian Schmid from Oberstdorf came second, and Johannes Rydzek, also from Oberstdorf, won. Riiber remained fourth. A fourth German, Terence Weber, achieved tenth place.
Frenzel’s idea obviously worked, but one shouldn’t assume that this great result can now be the new permanent level. Of course, Riiber will take the top podium again, at the latest when he has cured his annoying infection. But those are the thoughts of the others; Frenzel says he doesn’t want to deal much with the Norwegians, nor with the Austrians or the French. Frenzel just wants to advance his own team.
It is still unclear whether the sport has an Olympic future for both genders
The development of Johannes Rydzek, Saturday’s winner, is an example of how patience pays off in an unpredictable outdoor sport that is exposed to cold and wind. For exactly 2,150 days, almost six years, Rydzek only showed patchy form, especially as a jumper. Every now and then he seemed to despair, then fight again. But the so-called absolute top that he was used to as a 26-time World Cup winner and two-time overall World Cup winner was denied him for a long time.
It was certainly not helpful for a doubting combined athlete like Rydzek or for his teammates that Nordic combined had no clear and binding direction in recent years – and still does not have it today. It is still not clear whether the sport will have an Olympic future and what that might look like. The effect of the combination has greater significance, it is school discipline and has become leaner and has long shown surprising, exciting competitions in well-attended ski arenas.
Just like on Saturday in Kuusamo in Finland, the opening weekend of the season, with the highlight on the ski jump and Rydzek’s flight, which ended this long and exhausting time with an absolutely punctual jump from the Bakken. Previously, on Friday, the German spectators experienced the well-known Rydzek disappointment. He had trained well and had shown good flying form, but what was the point if the jury sent him into the track with a green light in a strong tailwind, which would mean he could have aborted the flight himself.
But there was still a jumping scheduled for Saturday. So a second chance, perhaps this time with some momentum, in a fair competition, and perhaps with his coach’s message still ringing in your ears: You can beat this great jumper and cross-country skier if you stay relaxed, “if you can wait for the day, if it is at himRiiber, sometimes things aren’t going 100 percent, and if we stand up to him.”
Was it those words beforehand, or the good mood in the team where one encouraged the other? Or simply the fact that this time the wind was blowing from the bottom up?
It was probably all together. “To be at the top again after such a long time is great. Johannes fought his way back cleanly,” said Frenzel, and: “You don’t get a jump like that every day.” Rydzek said he had had so many hard moments in the past few years: “This one is all the nicer. I am incredibly grateful.”
The season is still long, with other favorites such as the Austrian Thomas Rettenegger, or Jens Luraas Oftebro and Jörgen Graabak from Norway. But one of the favorites has now found his form. Johannes Rydzek has now found his way out of his form slump. The last jump of this kind was made… wait, exactly, 2,150 days ago.
#Johannes #Rydzek #wins #years
