A few weeks ago, Jarl Magnus Riiber received a compliment from America that was pretty bold even by American standards.
"He will probably go down as the best in Nordic combined history," said Johnny Spillane, a former world champion in the sport and now a television pundit.
Why?
"He's the best ski jumper, a good cross-country skier, a fantastic sprinter." Riiber has won eight out of 15 World Cup competitions this season.
Since autumn 2018 always the overall World Cup.
In addition, World Cup gold in Seefeld 2019 and in Oberstdorf 2021. At the age of 24, the Norwegian is only missing one thing: an Olympic victory.
The first gold medal in Nordic combined was awarded in China on Wednesday.
The Allgäu Vinzenz Geiger won it.
And Jarl Magnus Riiber, who not only Johnny Spillane considers the best in history?
Corona positive.
Nordic Combined is a particularly good example of why some say that some competitions at these Olympics should be starred.
They argue that a competition that the best cannot win loses value.
Although the Coronaviurs changes everything in the Olympic world, one must urgently contradict this representation.
Because otherwise, in addition to the truth that illnesses and injuries are always a variable for success in top-class sport, the extraordinary effort of the athletes will also be disregarded.
That applies to those who were successful in Japan in the summer of 2021.
And especially for those who are and will be in China in winter 2022.
Anyone who wins in Beijing, Yanqing or Zhangziakou is not a qualified winner.
This is especially true for the German Vinzenz Geiger.
It is probably the greatest challenge in top-class sport to achieve the highest level of performance at the right moment.
This challenge has reached a new peak in the second winter of the Corona pandemic.
The asterisk setters, however, would rhetorically ask with a view to Nordic combined or women's ski jumping: How much does a gold medal shine for which the Norwegian Jarl Magnus Riiber could not jump and sprint?
How shiny is the gold medal that Sara Marita Kramer from the Netherlands couldn't fly for?
This view begs a counter question: when in the history of the Winter Games did athletes have to overcome more challenges to get these gold medals?
Vinzenz Geiger's path as a "contact person" is the best proof.
Whoever wins in Beijing, Yanqing or Zhangziakou these days has achieved something amazing.
She or he didn't let the circumstances get her down at first - and then found the strength in the body and especially in the head to channel many years of preparation into a competition, sometimes just in one action.
How hard is that?
Ask Mikaela Shiffrin.