Annalena Slamik: "If you keep your joy, the results will come by themselves"

At just 22 years old, Austrian Nordic Combined athlete Annalena Slamik has already experienced many milestones in the development of women’s Nordic Combined - from her debut at the historic first World Cup in Ramsau to consistent top results on the circuit.

In our interview, she reflects on how she’s grown as an athlete, the progress of the women’s field, and why keeping the fun in what she does remains her most important goal.

The premiere in Ramsau 2020 marked the beginning of women’s World Cup history – and also your World Cup debut. How do you think you’ve grown as an athlete since that moment?

That World Cup debut in Ramsau was, of course, something very special. I still love thinking back to it – it was just such a unique experience, and it happened to be at home, which made it even more meaningful.
Since then, both my ski jumping and cross-country performances have improved a lot. I’ve also gained much more routine; you really grow into the whole process over time. The nervousness has definitely decreased – I still remember being so incredibly nervous at my very first World Cup. Luckily, that’s not the case anymore. You just grow with the experience, you learn from it, and you become stronger through it. So I look back with great memories, but I’m also happy that I’m much calmer now and have developed so much as an athlete.

Since then, how do you see the general development of the sport over the past few years?

I think it’s great that we’re getting more and more World Cups and that we now also get to jump on large hills. That was really cool when we were allowed to do that for the first time. I definitely hope there will be more large hill events in the future.
Of course, the situation with the Olympics is really disappointing – I think none of us expected that decision, and it was a real setback. But overall, the level in women’s Nordic Combined has become incredibly high. More and more athletes are joining the field. At the beginning, it was always the same small group of women, but now we’re seeing new and younger athletes coming up, and even more nations getting involved.
So I’d say the development of women’s Nordic Combined is very positive and definitely heading in the right direction – even though having Olympic World Champions would have been really cool.

You’ve achieved several podiums in the Mixed Team events – what makes those team competitions special for you compared to individual ones?

The Mixed Team is honestly one of my favorite formats. I absolutely love competing in it! It’s just such a fun and exciting experience to start alongside the guys in one team. You really feel the team spirit — when things go well, everyone celebrates together, and when they don’t, there are still three teammates there to lift you up. You win together and you lose together.
I think it’s a pity that there aren’t more Mixed Team events, especially in winter. I’d love to see more of them. The special thing about this format is that everyone gives their best for the team — and when that comes together, you can really be strong as one unit.

You achieved your best individual result last season with a 10th place in Otepää. How important was that for your confidence and motivation?

In Otepää, I achieved my first-ever Top 10 finish, and that had been my goal for a long time. For two seasons, I kept saying in interviews that my main goal was to finally make it into the Top 10 — and I was often really close, which made it even more frustrating when it didn’t happen.
But in Otepää, everything finally came together. I really like that hill, and achieving that result did wonders for my self-confidence and motivation. Especially since, at the start of the season, my jumping wasn’t working the way I knew it could. So it was a big relief and really satisfying to finally show what I’m capable of. I hope that from now on, results like that will happen more often and more consistently.

At just 22, you’ve already experienced many key moments in women’s Nordic Combined. What goals are you setting for yourself in the future?

As I just mentioned, my goal is definitely to be in the Top 10 more often. But above all, I want to get the best out of myself – to give everything in training so that I can look back without regrets.
My biggest focus is to transfer my training performances into competitions, especially on the hill, and to race with all my heart in the cross-country part. I want to stabilize my performances overall.
But I think the most important thing is to stay healthy – both mentally and physically. That’s my top priority. And, of course, to keep the joy and fun in what I do. This is my job, and I absolutely love it. I’m so happy that this is what I get to do. So if I stay healthy and keep my passion, the good results will follow naturally.

Together with Claudia Purker, you’ve launched the social media channel “sometimespicky,” where you give fans a fun behind-the-scenes look at life on the World Cup tour and as an athlete. It’s a great way to promote the sport – how did the idea for it come about, and what’s the story behind the name?

Claudia and I started “SometimesPicky” together – and, well, the name says a lot already! Both of us are pretty picky when it comes to food – Claudia more than me, but I’m a bit picky too. So we agreed on a middle ground: SometimesPicky.
The idea came to us last spring. We spend so much time together – honestly, we see each other more than our families. We know every side of each other: the fun, the crazy, the serious. So we thought it would be nice to share a bit of that, partly also as a memory for ourselves.
We decided to create an Instagram account to take people a bit behind the scenes — to show what a World Cup day looks like, how training camps go, or what happens when we have a few minutes of downtime. That’s just who we are. We felt that too little of that side is shown — because we’re not just “Claudia Purker the athlete” and “Annalena Slamik the athlete,” but also real people. And that’s what we want to show: who we really are and what we love doing.