Park City, UT November 28th, 2019 – The Men’s Nordic Combined Season kicks off this weekend in Ruka, Finland. The weekend will consist of three individual events Friday through Sunday.
Taylor Fletcher (Steamboat Springs, CO) leads the team into its season opener with a lot of experience competing on the World Cup. This will be Fletchers 10th World Cup opener in Ruka, Finland. Fletcher has World Cup podiums and a World Championship medal to his name.
Jared Shumate (Park City, UT) will be competing alongside Fletcher this weekend in Ruka. Shumate will be making his third career World Cup start at the young age of 20 years old. Though he lacks the experience of an athlete like Fletcher, Shumate feels confident going into this weekend. “Knowing what I can accomplish on my best days makes me excited to compete and keeps me motivated to keep pushing myself to always be competing at my best.”
Hendrickson knows the team has had a weakness historically. “As a collective team, jumping has been the crux and we continue to work on fine tuning programs and technique on the hill.” Shumate and Fletcher are both strong on the cross country course so their success this weekend and over the rest of the season will rely on jumping results https://ed-hrvatski.com/genericka-viagra/. This is something new jumping coach Gregor Linsig was brought in to help with. “Since starting with Gregor as our new jump coach, I have made large improvements. Each day I am getting better,” says Fletcher.
The jump hill in Ruka, Finland proves extra challenging year after year. “It is the biggest hill that nordic combined competes on, which makes it a bit more intimidating than the other jumps throughout the year,” says Shumate. Fletcher gets more detailed in his evaluation of the hill saying, “You need to be aggressive but patient because the hill has a very large knoll and if you rush too quick you will kill the height quickly and not go far.”
How to Watch
This weekend’s Nordic Combined World Cup can be replayed with the NBC Sports Gold Snow Pass. In addition, the Men’s Ski Jumping World Cup will take place Saturday and Sunday in Ruka. Watch all our athletes compete on the world stage this weekend and the rest of the winter with the NBC Sports Gold Snow Pass. Tag USA Nordic in social media posts of your NBC Stream in order to win prizes and gear throughout the year.
