Nordic combined, lone Winter Games sport without gender equity, faces shaky Olympic future

CBC

24-02-2025

Nordic combined has a rich history in the Olympics and potentially, a bleak future.
Since the first Winter Games in 1924, the unique sport has tested the bravery and endurance of athletes in ski jumping and cross-country skiing.
A year from now, it might be a former Olympic sport.
"That's a big concern, or a big issue, that we talk about," four-time Olympic champion Joergen Graabak of Norway said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Nordic combined is scheduled to wrap up competition at the Milan-Cortina Olympics on Feb. 19, 2026, and that may be its finale on the world stage.
The International Olympic Committee will make the call in June, when it decides which events will be part of its program at the 2030 French Alps Winter Games.
The sport might not make the cut at least in part to end conversations about its gender inequities during an era in which women have made strides in sports across the globe.
Nordic combined is the only Winter Olympic sport that excludes a gender, giving men an opportunity to go for gold while women are relegated to watching. The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) plans to apply for women's nordic combined to become an Olympic sport, but not until the summer of 2026.
The IOC is proud to say the 2026 Winter Games will be the most gender-balanced, hailing the fact that 47 per cent of the athletes will be female.
FIS aims to boost nordic combined visibility
While the governing body could decide to give women a chance at Olympic gold in nordic combined, it could also choose to eliminate the sport from the program in five years.
FIS, national governing bodies, athletes, coaches and advocates are doing what they can to salvage the sport on the Olympic level. They have increased the number of participating skiers along with attempts to boost its visibility with a docuseries The Overlooked, and a bigger presence on social media.
The French ski federation may also give the sport a lifeline.
Although the governing body in France is not going to call the shots, it is teaming with FIS to publicly and privately push for women in nordic combined to have their first opportunity to compete for Olympic gold in 2030.
"Women's nordic combined is developing little by little around the world and it's only logical that women should be able to join the Olympic program too," French skiing federation technical director Pierre Mignerey told the AP. "But we are not the decision-makers."
Jarl Magnus Riiber, a five-time overall World Cup champion currently ranked No. 1, hopes the IOC considers how cutting the sport would also affect two other disciplines.
"Taking away nordic combined will destroy ski jumping a little bit and cross country as well," said the 27-year-old Norwegian, who is planning to retire following the season due to a digestive condition. "This is very important for the stability of our system.
"It's a very easy choice for them to make a quick fix, but I think for the future, it's best to keep it in the Winter Games."
Three years ago, Nordic combined barely survived as an Olympic sport.
The IOC's executive board lamented it did not have strong international representation outside of Europe. During the previous three Winter Games, just four countries won the 27 medals available and the sport had the smallest audience during those Olympics.
46 women with World Cup points
Since then, FIS has provided the IOC with progress reports every six months and met annually.
Females who leave a perch as high as a 40-story building and fearlessly fly the length of an American football field and then race on cross-country skis have also done their part to keep flickering Olympic dreams alive.
There are 46 women with World Cup points, entering world championships that start Thursday in Norway, after 30 females participated in the debut season four years ago.
Skiers from Germany, Japan and Norway are in the top three in the World Cup standings and eight countries are represented among the top 12.
The United States, whose nordic combined program was salvaged last fall after it lost funding, has two women in the top 15: Alexa Brabec and Annika Malacinski.
Brabec finished fourth in Austria earlier this month for the best finish by an American woman since Tara Geraghty-Moats won the first World Cup event for women in 2020.
Alas, Geraghty-Moats left the sport to pursue Olympic dreams in biathlon.
The 20-year-old Brabec, though, is holding out hope she will get a shot to jump and ski for Olympic gold in France in five years.