By Philip O'Connor
STOCKHOLM, Jan 27 (Reuters) - The world's best female Nordic combined athletes will stage a protest about their exclusion from the Winter Olympics at their final competition ahead of the 2026 Games in Milano Cortina, American competitor Annika Malacinski told Reuters.
The sport, which combines ski jumping and cross-country skiing, will be one of few without female representation at the Games, and the 24-year-old and her rivals are planning to hold their ski poles in an X shape ahead
of Friday's mass start in Seefeld, Austria to symbolise "no exception".
"It's so messed up that the women are excluded, because we checked off everything that the IOC wanted to see, but at the end of the day, what hurts is that the IOC doesn't see the quality of adding women. We can't go another cycle without full equality in the Olympics," she said.
In a written response to a request for comment from Reuters, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) acknowledged issues facing the sport for both men and women, including audience popularity and that relatively few nations are competitive.
"The IOC will continue to support the International Ski Federation (FIS) in the development and promotion of Nordic Combined. For this reason, the discipline will undergo a full evaluation following the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026," the IOC statement said.
"On the other hand, FIS and the Nordic Combined community also have a responsibility to come back with a more compelling case in terms of universality, popularity and level of performance, both on the men and the women categories, to allow the IOC to make decisions for the 2030 Games and beyond."
(Reporting by Philip O'ConnorEditing by Toby Davis)
