Park City, Utah – US Ski & Snowboard excitedly announced that the inaugural Women’s Nordic Combined National Championships will be contested in Lake Placid, NY alongside their male counterparts on October 7th, 2017.
The announcement comes on the heels of a week of discussions at the USA Nordic spring meetings that included the importance of the addition of Women’s Nordic Combined. The timing coincides with international initiatives in the sport, like the inclusion of Women’s Nordic Combined on the upcoming seasons of the FIS Continental Cup schedule.
The addition of the Women’s event to national and international calendars has definitely been a goal for USA Nordic; “We are committed to keeping up and, to the best of our resources, staying ahead of the world as this event makes its debut at the senior level,” said USA Nordic’s Executive Director Billy Demong.
Demong, known as a pioneer in his own right as America’s first (and to date, only) Olympic Gold Medalist in Nordic Skiing, went on to note that “This is an opportunity that we are fully behind. We know that other nations will begin to turn on their funding and that when this becomes an Olympic event everyone will spend resources we can not match. Right now we have the opportunity and responsibility to take athletes like Tara Geraghty-Moats and Gabby Armstrong and develop them into leaders in the sport. It is our job to continue to innovate and support them so that they can lead Women’s Nordic Combined into the future with our crop of upcoming juniors.”
On the news of the sport becoming an official event at U.S. National Championship’s, athletes were ecstatic. Armstrong noted, “I thought I was excited when women’s Ski Jumping was added to the Olympic program, but the progress women’s Nordic Combined has made over the last few years adds a whole new level of excitement for me. I have been training for Nordic Combined since I was ten years old, but have mostly had to compete in Ski Jumping and Cross Country racing as separate sports. I’m just in awe that the sport has come this far; I look forward to jumping and racing with US girls at Nationals!”
Moats shared her long awaited enthusiasm and desire to help lead saying, “For me, the addition of Women’s Nordic Combined to Nationals is proof that if you do what you love with heart, people will notice, and support it. I have always done Nordic Combined but never been able to compete internationally or nationally. I’m so honored to have the USA Nordic community’s support. It will be a dream come true to help develop Women’s Nordic Combined and compete in it.”
