Nordic combined star Jarl Magnus Riiber soaring and skiing toward finish in record-breaking season

Jarl Magnus Riiber might be the most dominant athlete in any sport right now.

If Nordic combined wasn't a niche sport, popular in countries such as Germany and Austria while mostly overlooked in the United States and elsewhere, the world would be well aware of what Riiber has been doing since October.

The 26-year-old Riiber will close a spectacular and record-breaking season Sunday in his native Norway, likely soaring past the competition in ski jumping to start a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) cross-country course with a big lead to set up another victory.

Riiber enters the competition at Trondheim with a record 12 straight World Cup wins in events he entered and a record 16 victories this season — breaking his previous marks — to increase his record-breaking career total to 73 since his first in 2016.

“I’m very proud of this season," Riiber said recently in an interview with The Associated Press. "We’re putting every experience together to make good results with lots of consistency. This is the most fun part. We are in control.

"But now is not the time to focus on everything we have done. It’s more like, what is next? Hopefully after my career, I can look back more at what I have done.”

With a fifth World Cup championship wrapped up earlier this season, Riiber began looking ahead to the 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championship in Trondheim on his home hill and course.

“It will be like the biggest thing I will be a part of in my career,” he said. “We have it every second year, and it's much bigger than the Olympics.

"At the Olympics, more people worldwide are watching from countries that don't look at the sport every day. But at the championship, we are the focus and the people who are coming to watch love the sport.”

Riiber, though, does acknowledge that he will be very motivated to win at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics in Italy.

He went into the Beijing Olympics two years ago as the favorite and left with a heartbreaking result.

After testing positive for COVID-19 in China, he was in isolation for about two weeks and had less than 24 hours to prepare for the final Nordic combined event. Unfamiliar with the cross-country course, he took a wrong turn to lose his cushion and lead before fading to an eighth-place finish.

At the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, he just missed the podium with fourth-place finishes in the large and normal hill competitions.

“Olympic gold is the last thing I have missed in my career,” he said softly.

On the FIS Nordic combined World Cup circuit, he is in rarified air.

Hannu Manninen of Finland had a record 48 wins until Riiber surpassed him two years ago, pushing Germany's Eric Frenzel to third before he ended his career 2023 with 43 victories.

“Among the greats, Jarl is cementing his space at the top,” said four-time Nordic combined Olympian Taylor Fletcher, an American, who retired from the sport after the Beijing Games. "But you can’t mention the greats without talking about Eric Frenzel, Hannu Manninen, Ronnie Ackerman, and many more including Billy Demong.

“Every winner is great in some sense, but what separates the greats is being able to do it over time like Eric and Jarl have done.”

Nordic combined, which was part of the first Winter Olympics in 1924, challenges athletes in a unique way. They need to have finesse and fearlessness for ski jumping and the strength and stamina necessary for a 10-kilometer cross-country course.

The athlete who jumps the farthest and impresses judges the most starts the cross-country portion of the Nordic combined event with a lead. The rest of the field follows, in order of the finish in ski jumping, and the first to cross the finish line wins.

An athlete in the sport usually excels at ski jumping or cross-country skiing, but Riiber is the best at both disciplines and leaves the field competing for second place.

“Jarl is doing something different on the hill and on the track,” Johannes Lamparter of Austria said earlier this season. “But to be 'best of the rest’ for the second time is very special for me.”

Ski jumping governing bodies from Norway and the U.S. forged an unprecedented partnership two years ago to share coaches, training facilities and sports science data. That agreement has allowed Americans, such as Olympian Stephen Schumann, an opportunity to observe Riiber up close outside of competitions.

“He's what happens when talent is combined with one of the hardest working people in the sport to create the perfect storm for an athlete,” Schumann said in a telephone interview Thursday before competing in the World Cup finale. “That's why he's one of the best athletes, in general, in the world.”

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Follow Larry Lage at https://twitter.com/larrylage