By Tommy Lund and Liz Hampton
Jan 29 (Reuters) - Nordic combined has reached a critical juncture ahead of the Milano Cortina Games, with U.S. athlete Annika Malacinski among those leading a push to draw attention to the sport’s uncertain future as women remain excluded from the Olympic programme.
When the Games open next month, Nordic combined will again feature only as a men’s event, remaining the only Winter Olympic discipline without a women’s competition.
The sport combines cross-country skiing
and ski jumping into a single event, with each competition merging the two disciplines to crown one overall winner.
Women now have their own World Championships and World Cup circuit in Nordic combined, yet the discipline remains excluded from the Olympic programme.
By contrast, women’s cross-country skiing has been part of the Games since 1952, while women’s ski jumping was added in 2014.
While there had been hopes that women would be included at this year's Games, the International Olympic Committee announced in 2022 that women’s Nordic combined would not be added to the Olympic programme because it lacks universality, while warning that the men's Olympic spot is also at risk due to low interest.
The stakes are high, according to Malacinski.
“We are now in a position where the whole sport is at risk,” she said in an interview with Reuters this month. “If you cannot offer men and women equal opportunities, you also risk losing your place in the Games entirely.
“If Nordic combined does not make it to the (2030 French Alps) Olympics, then most likely every single country will cut the funding,” she added.
PROTESTS OVER EXCLUSION OF WOMEN'S EVENT
The decision to exclude the women's competition from next month's Games was met with protests in the competitions that followed. Athletes marked an X for "no eXception" with their ski poles before the start, while the winner, Norwegian Gyda Westvold Hansen participated with a drawn-on beard.
"We've pushed through so many barriers trying to make the Olympic Committee hear us. One of our strongest statements was standing together at the start line, raising our poles in an X," Malacinski wrote on social media after U.S. Ski and Snowboard this month announced its roster for the 2026 Games.
Malacinski has been vocal about the differentiation in the sport, having used her social media to point it out, but she also believes the sport can be saved.
"If the IOC sees that Nordic combined can be a more popular sport and that more people are watching it, then we will save it," Malacinski added.
Her compatriot Alexa Brabec agreed.
"I think everyone is disappointed but working hard these last couple of years to improve the sport and keep it growing and proving that we deserve to be on the Olympic stage," Brabec told Reuters.
“Nordic combined has made significant progress since the decision in 2022 (not to include the women's event in the Milano Cortina Games),” she said. “In terms of leadership, the level of competition and the number of nations involved, it has grown.
“I am positive and hopeful that they will include us going forward,” she added.
(Reporting by Tommy Lund in Gdansk and Liz Hampton in Denver; Editing by Ken Ferris)
