German · Germany · Born 21 November 1988German Nordic combined skier and the most decorated athlete in the discipline's Olympic history, who won back-to-back individual gold medals eight years apart.
Eric Frenzel was born on 21 November 1988 and was introduced to Nordic combined by his father, a coach in the discipline, who put him on skis at two and atop a ski jump at six. He became a junior world sprint champion in 2007 at Tarvisio, Italy, joined the FIS World Cup circuit that same year aged 19, and became a father himself at 18, two months before his first major international medals. Frenzel made his Olympic debut at the 2010 Vancouver Games, winning bronze in the team event, before establishing himself as the sport's dominant force through the following decade. In January 2014, just weeks before the Sochi Olympics, he achieved a rare 'Triple' - three consecutive wins at Seefeld, Austria - and carried that form into the Games, winning individual normal hill gold by four seconds over Japan's Akito Watabe, plus team silver. Frenzel went on to win a record five consecutive overall World Cup titles between 2013 and 2017, and defended his Olympic title at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, overcoming a 38-second deficit after the ski jumping portion to storm back and beat Watabe again in the closing kilometer, then added team gold as Germany completed a clean sweep of Nordic combined events. That victory brought his Olympic medal tally to six, tying Austria's Felix Gottwald for the discipline's all-time Olympic medal record, before Frenzel added a seventh - team silver - at the 2022 Beijing Games despite testing positive for COVID-19 and missing both individual events. He retired in March 2023 with a record 18 World Championship medals and became a coach for the German national Nordic combined team.
Winning back-to-back Olympic individual gold medals eight years apart and becoming the most decorated athlete in Nordic combined Olympic history
How They Played
Tactically composed all-rounder known for strong ski jumping positioning combined with a devastating cross-country finishing kick, capable of erasing large deficits in the closing kilometers
Lasting Impact
Regarded as one of the greatest Nordic combined skiers ever, whose blend of ski jumping consistency and cross-country closing speed defined the discipline for over a decade
Career Honours
- 2x Olympic Gold Medalist, Individual Normal Hill (2014, 2018)
- 7 Olympic medals - most in Nordic combined history
- Record 5x Consecutive Overall World Cup Champion
- 18x World Championship Medalist
German Athletes