Rena, Norway (February, 17, 2019) – USA Nordic athlete Tara Geraghty-Moats (W. Fairlee, VT/New York Ski Education Foundation) swept to a pair of wins in an International Ski Federation Nordic Combined Continental Cup in Rena, Norway. With this latest in a string of wins, Geraghty-Moats continues to lead the standings as she has all season.
The 25-year-old Geraghty-Moats wore her green leader bib in the seventh Continental Cup of the season where nine nations were represented by 20 athletes.
On Saturday, she was in third place after the ski jumping on the 111 meter hill. She then skied past Norway’s Gyda Westvold Hansen who finished second, a familiar sight to Geraghty-Moats taking top step on the podium. On Sunday, it was second place for Geraghty-Moats coming out of the ski jumping, skiing onto the top of the podium with Westvold Hansen, the Junior World Championship silver medalist, finishing second.
“I had a really good race today.” said Geraghty-Moats after day one of two in Rena. “I was a little bit nervous about how my skiing would feel because I haven’t been doing much cross country training, I’ve been on the ski jumping World Cup, and I definitely felt it a little bit that I haven’t been training as many hours but I was really happy with how everything turned out.”
Saturday, her two-time U.S. Biathlon Olympian boyfriend Sean Doherty had a career-best 10th place at the IBU World Cup at Utah’s Soldier Hollow. Geraghty-Moats, a former biathlete herself, was rooting for him from afar.
Norway sends the tour off to Seefeld, Austria next where the 2019 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships are being held from February 19th thru March 3rd. Women’s nordic combined will be a part of the World Championships beginning in 2021, with hopeful inclusion in future Olympics.
Worldwide fans of women’s ski jumping are in luck, though, as Geraghty-Moats and her USA Nordic teammates Nita Englund (Kiwanis Ski Club), Nina Lussi (New York Ski Education Foundation) and Logan Sankey (Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club) will compete in Seefeld later this week. The women will have three events at World Championships for the first time including an individual competition, a women’s team event and a mixed gender team event.
Also putting in a good showing in Rena this weekend were Geraghty-Moats’ USA Nordic male nordic combined teammates Jared Shumate (Park City Ski and Snowboard) who finished 20th and Grant Andrews (Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club) in 35th place.
pictured: Tara Gereghty-Moats
photo credits: Romina Eggert
