Paris (AFP)
The American Tara Geraghty-Moats won Friday in Ramsau (Austria) the first women's World Cup event in the history of the Nordic combined.
An experienced athlete and domineering on the secondary circuits for several years, Tara Geraghty-Moats (27), 6th after the morning jump, beat the Norwegian Gyda Westvold Hansen (18) and the Japanese Anju Nakamura (20) at the after 5 km of cross-country skiing.
"I've been dreaming about it since I was 10, I was really not sure of myself, I was only able to do 10% of my usual jumps this summer in training," she said after the test.
Until then exclusively male, the historic discipline of Nordic combined opens this season for the first time to women at the highest international level.
The women's combined is also on the program for the Worlds in Oberstdorf (Germany) in February and March 2021.
But the first World Cup season could be cut short: after several cancellations due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, Friday's race is the only one on the program.
The International Ski Federation (FIS) is trying to find a new niche for the events scheduled for December in Lillehammer (Norway), for the moment postponed without a resumption date.
© 2020 AFP