Geraghty-Moats ‘Beyond Excited’ For Women’s Nordic Combined World Cup Debut
For American Tara Geraghty-Moats, the long-awaiting debut of the women’s FIS Nordic Combined World Cup will finally come to fruition on Dec. 18th in Ramsau am Dachstein, Austria, albeit just a bit sooner than expected.
The FIS Women’s Nordic Combined World Cup was scheduled to debut in Estonia next month. However, due to rising COVID-19 cases in the area, both the men and women’s events were cancelled. Now, the first-ever women’s World Cup will take place on Friday, Dec. 18th in conjunction with the men’s World Cup nordic combined events, and also one additional event in women’s World Cup ski jumping.
“I am beyond excited for the first-ever women's World Cup,” Tara said from Norway where she is currently training for the season before heading to Ramsau am Dachstein. “Finally having a women's premiere in nordic combined is the culmination of so many people and organizations coming together to make this happen. I want to send a huge shout-out to everyone who has supported me and the other women on this journey. It has been a long time coming, but I'm excited to make history together in Ramsau.”
The timing for the event could not have been better as this provides the athletes with an opportunity to compete in a World Cup event prior to the holidays, and before the next round of Continental Cup events in January. Women’s nordic combined will also have its World Championship debut Feb. 22 - March 7 in Oberstdorf, Germany.
“We would like to express a huge thanks to the Austrian Ski Federation and the organizers in Ramsau for their fantastic support in picking up this event, especially in the trying times we are currently in,” said FIS Nordic Combined Race Director Lasse Ottesen. “For our women, this is a world premiere and will therefore be an event to enter the history books. We can’t wait for this to finally happen and already look forward to the event immensely,”
Tara has been leading the women’s movement toward including nordic combined in the World Cup, World Championship, and hopefully someday, the Olympic Winter Games. Her athletic resume speaks volumes about the amount of hard work she has put into the sport, including finishing second in the first-ever women’s international nordic combined event and winning the overall title in the inaugural women’s Summer Grand Prix in 2018. Despite being one of the top competitors, she heads to Austria next week with one goal in mind - just enjoy the experience!
“I have no expectations for my first Nordic Combined World Cup,” she said. “It will be 10 months since I put on a bib, and I had only one month of jumping during that time. My plan is to do the best I can and enjoy the historical experience.”
The first-ever women’s FIS Nordic Combined World Cup will begin with a preliminary round on Thursday, Dec. 17 HS98/5k, followed with the official World Cup debut on Friday, Dec. 18 with an HS98/5k event.