Espen Rian started skiing in 1987 at Stadsbygd IL . He made his national debut in 2000 and one year later internationally in the Nordic Combined B-World Cup. He made his first appearance in the A World Cup on December 29, 2001 in Oberwiesenthal , where he was 22nd in the sprint. The 2001/02 season he finished in 43rd place overall. After he could not start successfully in the 2002/03 season , he moved again to the B World Cup in January 2003. After some good results, including several top 20 placements in the Summer Grand Prix, he started again in the World Cup from the 2003/04 season . The best place for the team was a fifth place in Oberstdorf on February 14, 2004.
After he took up the 2005/06 season again in the B World Cup, he achieved his international breakthrough in 2006. In November and December he achieved top 10 placements in Kuusamo and Lillehammer and finally his first podium with the team in January in Lago di Tesero . Then nominated for the Nordic World Ski Championships in 2007 in Sapporo , Japan , he reached third place with the team and won the bronze medal. He was also able to achieve good results in the World Cup and thus finished 14th in the overall World Cup ranking after the 2006/07 season . It was his most successful season, but he was unable to continue.
At the age of 29, he received another nomination from the association for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver . After a 19th place after jumping, he was only able to achieve 35th place in the individual competition after a rather poor mileage. Together with Jan Schmid , Petter Tande and Magnus Moan , he achieved fifth place overall in the team competition after placing seventh in jumping after good mileage. After the games he found his way back to the World Cup via the Continental Cup, but mostly only achieved mediocre placements. The best place was an eleventh place at the World Cup in Lillehammer .
Norway
