Norwegian native Bard Jorgen Elden has signed on to work another year with the Austrian Nordic Combined program.

"It was hard to say no after this past season", Elden told Ski Racing, in an exclusive interview this week. He went on to say..."there's so much potential in the group, and it's a very fun group with athletes and staff." The announcement was made by nordic sport boss, Ernst Vettori. Elden, a former USST combined coach, will continue to head up the program, while working with assistant Guenther Chroecek, and ski jump coaching specialist Falko Krismayr.

"My longterm goal will be to bring along some younger talent, we need to bring up younger athletes to be as competitive as Felix, Mario and Bernie. That is--for sure--possible but it will take some time," Elden added.

Elden also said that, ”we will reduce the team from seven to six in size, but there are many small things to tweak.”

Formal team training begins next week for the Austrian Nordic Combined team in Ramsau, Austria.

In other coaching news, The Finnish cross country program has announced they will hire Niclas Gron, 38, to be a second coach for the Finns. Previously, Gron had been working with the Swedish "B" Team and was the personal coach for Hanna Brodin and Hanna Falk. He begins his duties on June 1.

By Peter Q Graves