Differences in contribution between national and international competitions in the ski jump and cross-country skiing discipline that determine overall results in Nordic Combined

Abstract

In Nordic Combined competition, overall rank is decided by ski jumping and cross-country skiing performance. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the overall rank can be predicted from ski jumping and cross-country skiing in World Cup, Continental Cup and National Competition and whether the contribution of the two disciplines was different among each competition category. T-scores of overall (T_Total), ski jumping (T_SJ) and cross-country skiing (T_CC) were calculated from the time difference at the cross-country ski finish, ski jump point and cross-country ski time in each competition. The annual average T-scores were calculated in 2019─20 season and 2020─21 season. For each competition category, step-wise multiple regression analysis was conducted to predict T_Total from T_SJ and T_CC in both seasons. The results showed that T_Total variances were accounted for by the T_SJ and T_CC more than 99 %. In World Cup competition, the standardized partial regression coefficient of T_SJ was higher than that of T_CC in both seasons. On the other hand, the standardized partial regression coefficient of T_CC was higher than that of T_SJ in Continental Cup and National competition in both seasons. These results indicated that contribution to overall rank was different in competition categories. It is suggested that ski jumping performance is important for World cup athletes and cross-country skiing performance is important for Continental Cup and National athletes.