Nordic Combined: Johannes Lamparter overall World Cup winner for the first time

World Championship dominator Jarl Magnus Riiber from Norway won in Finland, vault winner Kristjan Ilves (+1.7 seconds) surprisingly finished second ahead of Norway’s Jens Luraas Oftebro (+55.0).

After 24th place in jumping in bad wind conditions, Lamparter started a catch-up race in the decisive 10 km cross-country race and finished eleventh (+1:30.5 min.). The best Austrian on Saturday was Stefan Rettenegger in eighth place (+1:17.5). This makes Lamparter the third Austrian overall World Cup winner after Klaus Sulzenbacher (1987/88 and 1989/90) and Felix Gottwald (2000/01).

A stellar career

When Felix Gottwald defended his title in the Nordic Combined World Cup in the winter of 2001/02, Johannes Lamparter had just been born. 22 years after the Gottwald triumph, the Tyrolean has now become the next or only the third Austrian to win the big crystal globe. A steep, but still young career reached another of many highlights this weekend – for Lamparter the biggest so far.

Because being number one for an entire season puts the only 21-year-old through a one-day triumph at a major event. Despite his youth, Lamparter has a direct comparison, at the age of 19 he became world champion in the large hill competition two years ago in Oberstdorf. In addition, he had come to World Championship gold in the Allgäu with his closer compatriot Lukas Greiderer in the team sprint and team bronze. This year, despite a suboptimal start, he followed up with three bronze medals at the World Championships in Planica.

When Riiber became beatable

Winning the Seefeld Triple is really worth a lot for the determined athlete. “That’s something I’m really proud of, that’s what matters most to me,” said Lamparter. “I dealt with a lot of pressure and was able to perform.” Even before that he had won two competitions in one day in Klingenthal, and also defeated over combined athlete Jarl Magnus Riiber. “You could see that he was beatable.”

Lamparter now replaces the Norwegian as overall World Cup winner after Riiber has won four times in a row. After a January low caused by illness and the result, he put everything on the World Cup card, was rewarded with four gold medals at most, but missed the World Cup for it. Lamparter is aware that the Norsker will be a lot more to reckon with in the upcoming World Cup mid-season. Lamparter: “I’ll try to close the gap.”

Still enough time

Of course, the Austrian is four years younger than Riiber and exactly the age when his big rival won his first overall World Cup. Lamparter knows where to start in order to successfully defend his title next year: “There’s a lot about ski jumping. There are other people who are better at jumping and people who are better at cross-country skiing than I am. That’s what it says to develop further. But I still have enough time in my career.”

This had started meteorically in the elite in the season before last. When he came to Oberstdorf as a junior world champion, he cleaned up and was also favored at the Olympics in Beijing a year ago due to the corona-related absence or weakness of Riiber. It was just not enough for a medal, in the World Cup the ÖSV young star lost in the last competition of the season Riiber in a duel for the ball in the final sprint, but now he has it in his hands.

At the beginning of the winter, there wasn’t much to indicate that, after five competitions, Lamparter was already more than 300 points behind the leader. After the bad start, he was really consistent from January. “That’s what makes it special when you collect points. That was what makes me most proud. I often set the pace in cross-country skiing, that was a real strength. And I’m really good on the hill can show.”

Music and shoe platters

Lamparter first came to ski jumping as a child through his cousin, the coach who mediated in Absam at the time was Andreas Felder. Lamparter stuck with it and soon took up cross-country skiing. The speed of jumping and the endurance required for cross-country skiing give the combination exactly the spice for him. He finds his balance in the family, but also in many social activities in his immediate home environment.

Music and Schuhplatteln played an important part in Lamparter’s youth, and he also took part in the Rumer Muller carnival tradition. His second sporting passion was weightlifting, and Lamparter made it to the U17 vice state champion. Now he has already achieved a double-digit number of World Cup victories as a combined athlete. “These are successes that I could only have dreamed of. When you’ve achieved that, it’s certainly endless satisfaction.”