Is Nordic Combined in jeopardy?

The future of Nordic combined appears to be in peril, the sport rumored to potentially being removed from the Milano-Cortina 2026 sport program and beyond. It remains one of the original Winter Olympic disciplines, with a storied history dating to Chamonix 1924.

Rumors and chatter persist the longstanding men’s event, combining ski jumping and cross-country skiing, could be dropped from the Olympic program ahead of the upcoming games in Italy, a victim of athlete quotas. The historic ski sport has been contested at 24 consecutive Olympic Winter Games.

Female Nordic combined athletes competing on a full-fledged World Cup circuit, and after a successful eight-year strategic plan carried out by the International Ski Federation (FIS) to expand and develop the sport, may witness their dreams vanishing faster through thin air than a ski jumper launching off the K-90 ramp.

Nordic combined remains the only Winter Olympic event excluding female athletes and it seems like a golden opportunity, a no-brainer, a slam dunk, to welcome the ladies into the Olympic family and achieve 100% gender balance for the first time in Winter Games history. Proposed by the FIS Council, many believe the event’s addition is a natural progression that will benefit Italy’s 2026 Olympics.

American Olympic and world champion Billy Demong, the former executive director at USA Nordic Sport and a coach of women athletes, is alarmed about recent developments behind the scenes. He is urgently championing the effort to save the nearly 100-year-old Olympic discipline which he deems “the original ski sport.”

“We have an original Olympic discipline that has been contested for a century now and it’s about to debut and fix one of the largest inequities in the Olympic program,” Demong tells Around the Rings referring to the inclusion of the women’s event. “Instead of creating that opportunity for a generation of women who have battled to be there, they are potentially going to deny them and then take their male teammates, who have supported them for the past decade, out of the Games permanently.

“I just don’t think that it’s enough of a priority for some of the IOC leadership,” Demong added.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is scheduled for a remote Executive Board meeting on June 24 to further discuss, and potentially make key decisions regarding the Milano-Cortina 2026 sport program. It had been previously decided in 2018 to hold back the entry of women’s Nordic combined for Beijing 2022, as the IOC deemed the sport needed to be further developed.

Demong stresses his ongoing commitment, alongside FIS colleagues including Norwegian Nordic combined race director Lasse Ottesen, to mentor and assist predominantly young women pursuing the sport with aspirations to take flight and ski laps at the Olympic Games.

“These brave young women have been working for over a decade together, more closely than any sport that I’m aware of, with the intent that they will be the group of women that will bring true gender equality to the Games by competing in the last sport that does not have it,” Demong emphasizes, with a powerful tone in his voice. “They are pioneers eager to compete in front of the world together, for the first time, in Milano-Cortina 2026.”

This past winter season 39 female Nordic combined competitors from 11 countries tallied World Cup points. Nine events were held at classic venues spanning five countries. Next season, women’s Nordic combined is once again slated for the world championships in Planica, Slovenia.

Annika Malacinski is one of three top female Nordic combined athletes on the U.S. roster. The 21-year-old finished 17th overall on this past season’s World Cup circuit, and has built her experience competing at the 2021 Nordic World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany and Junior Worlds in Lahti, Finland.

“Getting women’s Nordic combined into the program in 2026 has been the goal since we first started working on establishing it as an international discipline eight years ago and now all this work rests on the IOC’s decision,” Malacinski said.

“It would mean gender equality, more economic resources, recruiting younger girls and boys into our sport, sportsmanship, enjoyment, tight duels and development both for sports and for the athletes who are performing,” she said.

Demong fears his sport, which he insists is consistently strong (compared to other winter sports) in popularity from a TV viewership perspective, is falling victim to the IOC’s desire to avoid any increase in the sheer number of athletes at the Games, even though Nordic combined athlete numbers have obviously been counted in the past.

At Beijing 2022, 57 Nordic Combined men’s athletes from 18 nations competed across there medal events. Demong even suggests as an alternative, decreasing the amount of men, while including women and transforming the current team relay event to a mixed gender competition.

The 42-year-old retired athlete, originally from Lake Placid, N.Y., but a longtime Park City, Utah resident, won the U.S. first and only gold medal in the sport at the 10km large hill event in Vancouver 2010, in addition to helping his team claim silver in the relay.

Demong reveals his concerns over the sport’s possible demise partially stem from a recent discussion German star Eric Frenzel, a triple Olympic gold medalist, had with IOC president Thomas Bach. Frenzel walked away discouraged about what may happen to his sport, as he seeks another gold at a possible fifth Olympic Games in 2026.

“While I do believe that Thomas Bach is a fan of Nordic Combined and would rather this not happen, he also said that this is in the hands of a committee that he was not able to make decisions for,” Demong said. “This is obviously very alarming and disconcerting to me.”

Demong is the father of two boys. He doesn’t want to deal with myriad consequences if the sport is cut, hoping that his kids, may also seek a potentially rewarding future in the sport.

“I really pray that I do not have to have that conversation with my 11-year-old son, Liam, who desperately loves Nordic Combined and often casually refers to his future as “after I win the Olympics in Nordic Combined.”

Malacinski is also making an open plea, on behalf of the women, to the IOC decision makers.

“We are so grateful for the hard work FIS and all the national ski federations have put in to let us take part of this wonderful sport on a high international level,” she says. “So please, IOC, make our dream come true – let women’s Nordic Combined be part of the Olympic program in 2026″

Follow Brian on Twitter – @Brian_Pinelli