Eric Frenzel

One of the all-time greats of Nordic combined skiing is, without doubt, Germany’s Eric Frenzel. Since winning his first world gold medal in 2007, he has gone on to achieve everything a Nordic skier dreams of. He has won six Olympic medals (three of them gold), fifteen World Championship medals (seven gold), and perhaps most impressively of all, he won the World Cup five times in a row. Put simply, he’s one of the most successful Nordic skiers of all-time.

Born in a Saxony town in 1988, Frenzel’s career truly began to take off during his second season. At the Junior World Championships in March 2007, he took gold in the men’s sprint and helped the German team to second in the relay event. At the start of the next season, he made his World Cup debut. For many athletes, it takes years of dedication to slowly build their way up the rankings. Not Frenzel; he finished seventh at his first attempt, winning one stage and making the podium in two others. It was the beginning of a special relationship with one of the skiing world’s toughest events. In 2011/12, he won the Cup outright for the first time, a feat he would achieve for five consecutive seasons.

Whilst in the midst of dominating the World Cup, Frenzel also found time to conquer the Winter Olympics. Having taken a team bronze at the 2010 games, he won an individual gold and team silver at the 2014 games, an individual and team gold at the 2018 games, and individual bronze at the same event. Nordic combined skiing won’t see the likes of Eric Frenzel again for a long time.