To conclude the 2018/19 ski season, the Nordic Combined Awards took place on the last evening of the season to celebrate the athletes’ performances. This year, the ceremony was held at Schonach’s Haus des Gastes. The night kicked off with an awesome performance by the athlete band, which included Austrian skier Bernard Gruber and Finnish Nordic skier Ilkka Herola.
Here are some of the winners of this year’s awards.
Athlete of the Year
The title of the best athlete of the year is received by the competitor who achieved great success and rose to the highest level of the podium during the whole season.
Male winner: Jarl Magnus Riiber (Norway)
Female winner: Tara Geraghty-Moats (USA)
Rookie(s) of the Year
This award is focused on rewarding the newcomer athletes who have now said to have broken into the ‘elite’ status. This award has age restrictions to only include junior athletes.
Winners
Johannes Lamparter (Austria)
Jens Lurås Oftebro (Norway)
Coach of the Year
The coaches of the Austrian skiers took out the award for Coaches of the year.
Winners
Christoph Eugen, Christoph Bieler, Jochen Strobl
Moment of the Year
The award for ‘Moment of the Year’ always seems to be the most difficult. It’s hard to choose just one event that stands out clearly from the rest!
The jury presented a list of three nominees: “Mario Seidl changes the course of the Nordic Combined Triple on the last day of competition”, “Ilkka Herola and Eero Hirvonen interrupt almost 10-year series of failures, winning in their native land in Lahti”, “Eric Frentsel’s unexpected gold in Seefeld “.
Ilkka Herola and Eero Hirvonen ended up taking out the win.
Winner: Ilkka Herola & Eero Hirvonen
FIS Fairplay Award
Eero Hirvonen won the FIS Fairplay award for his assistance with Bernhard Gruber’s shoe problem during the team event at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships Seefeld (AUT).
Winner: Eero Hirvonen
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