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MILAN — U.S. Nordic combined skier Annika Malacinski, ranked 10th in the world, will be at the Winter Olympics in Italy.
But she's not there to compete, because women aren't allowed to. Instead, she'll be cheering on her younger brother Niklas in the very same sport, a fusion of ski jumping and cross-country skiing.
"[We] work just as hard, sacrifice just as much," she told NPR. "I mean, we both live in Norway, we live in a place that we didn't grow up in just to be the best that we can be. And the only thing that is stopping me from being at the Olympic Village right now is because I'm a female."
Nordic combined is composed of individual and team events. It starts with ski jumping, where an athlete's score is determined by distance and style. Those results determine the starting order for a 10 kilometer (6.2 miles) cross-country ski race later in the day.
"I kind of like to compare Nordic combined to making the NASA space shuttle," says U.S. competitor Tara Geraghty-Moats. "You have to have so many high-level skills and be at such a high level in two different sports … It's incredibly thrilling and it's kind of an all-in-one package."
Nordic combined was one of the original Winter Olympic disciplines in 1924. Today, it is the only Olympic sport that excludes women — even as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) touts these as "the most gender-balanced Olympic Winter Games in history."
"For over 100 years it's been available to men," Malacinski said. "And just [in] the past decade, it's started to be available for women … the one thing that is missing is the Olympics."
Women's Nordic combined was added to the World Cup circuit in 2020, and the world championships program in 2021. It's been part of the Youth Winter Olympic Games since 2020. But the IOC denied it the opportunity for inclusion in both 2022 and in 2026, citing low viewership and a lack of participation across countries.
That limits how far the sport's most elite female athletes can go — and how much money they make along the way.
"In 2020, when I was at the top of the sport, I certainly had agents come to me and say, 'If your sport was in the Olympics, we could make you $1 million today, but unfortunately the marketability of your sport without being in the Olympics is not there,'" said Geraghty-Moats, who won the inaugural World Cup title.
Sports federations, advocacy groups and athletes all say Nordic combined, while niche, has grown in recent years — especially at the youth level — and are lobbying for the IOC to include it in 2030.
But the discipline is now facing an additional, existential challenge.
The IOC says it will conduct a full evaluation after the 2026 Olympics in order to make a "decision on the inclusion of Nordic Combined for men and women" in 2030 — meaning it's possible Nordic combined could be removed from the roster altogether. It is expected to make a decision at its annual meeting in June.
The IOC already reduced the number of male quota spots, from 55 at the last Winter Olympics to 36 this year.
"The problem is not [just about] adding women anymore," Malacinski said. "It's about saving the sport."
The way to do that, athletes say, is by tuning in to — and talking about — Nordic combined at the Olympics. Its two remaining medal events take place on Tuesday and Thursday.
Why women's Nordic combined is left out
Malacinski was on a flight from Europe to the U.S. on the day the IOC's decision for 2026 came out, four years ago. She said everyone was so sure of the result that she preemptively ordered a celebratory bottle of champagne. The reality was anything but.
"I cried eight hours straight on that airplane," she said. "It was by far the worst day of my entire life."
Malacinski recorded what she calls her "raw reaction of what it felt like to get your dreams taken away from you" and posted the footage on social media, where it took off. She's been one of the most vocal advocates for women's inclusion in Olympic Nordic combined ever since.
Lasse Ottesen, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) race director for Nordic combined, said the community was stunned by the IOC's most recent ruling.
For one thing, he calls Nordic combined "the most sustainable discipline in the Olympics." It uses the same venues as ski jumping and cross-country skiing, requiring no additional construction — and women compete on the exact same courses and equipment as men.
"It's a young discipline, we don't need to argue that," he said. "But … looking [at] what they've done through the last years, through the World Cup Series, through our World Championships, it definitely has been a tremendous development."
While the sport is predominantly popular in the Nordic region for which it is named, it has also had success in Italy, Japan and the U.S., which earned its first Olympic medals in the sport in 2010. About 200 women from two dozen countries are registered to compete in the sport, according to FIS reports from 2023 and 2024.
A Nielsen Sports survey found that viewership for women's Nordic combined increased 25% during the FIS World Cup 2024-2025 season.
But arguably the most important test is yet to come: Viewership of Nordic combined at these Olympics.
An IOC spokesperson told NPR over email that at the last three Winter Olympics, the 27 Nordic combined medals went to athletes from only four countries, and that the discipline had "by far the lowest audience numbers during those Games."
The IOC says the Olympic future of Nordic combined depends not only on an increase in the number of athletes and countries participating in the sport, but in its overall popularity "across broadcast, digital, general public interest and press."
"Sports-wise, we're sort of at the end of that cycle of, let's say, three years of showcasing our sport," Ottesen said. "[The] Olympics is still the biggest window we have."
What's at stake
The Olympics have cast a broader spotlight on the plight of women's Nordic combined, especially on social media. Tens of thousands of people have signed an online petition calling on the IOC to expand the sport in 2030, and two U.S. senators submitted a letter to the IOC with the same plea this week.
"Women's Nordic Combined deserves a place in the Olympics, and expanding that opportunity for these athletes is the right choice over eliminating tradition," wrote Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper of Colorado. "We would welcome the opportunity to discuss how we might work together to achieve this important goal."
Ottesen suspects the Committee's decision will be black and white: Either everyone gets to do Nordic combined at the Olympics, or no one does. He acknowledges the latter is a possibility, but isn't engaging with it just yet.
"To be honest, we're not preparing for an option without Nordic combined in the Olympics," he said.
He thinks about the younger generations in the sport now, who just might have the option — and the motivation — of competing in 2030 or 2034.
"If we're not part of that, what will those young girls and young talents look forward to?" he adds.
Athletes who do Nordic combined could theoretically shift to competing in its component sports of ski jumping and cross-country skiing, which are on the Olympic roster.
But Nordic combined athletes say their sport is special, and they want to see it thrive. And it's even bigger than their niche sport: They want to end gender discrimination at the Olympics.
"I am advocating so the next generation doesn't have to wonder if their dreams matter, because at the end of the day, they do," Malacinski said. "If you work hard and the man has the opportunity, so should the woman."
Many of their male peers have spoken up, from the Olympics, in support of their efforts. Cross-country skier Zak Ketterson said at a press conference that he feels "really bad for those women who are training really hard and pouring their life into the sport, just like we are, and don't get to show it on the world stage."
"You see the amount of money they spend on having Snoop Dogg and all these really random initiatives, and the fact that they can't set aside a little bit of money to include women's Nordic combined makes no sense to me," he added.
Malacinski's brother, Niklas, told reporters about a picture he saved on his phone of the two of them, ages 3 and 5, perched (by their parents) on a podium after watching a World Cup event in Colorado, where they grew up.
"It's sad we can't experience that, but I've seen incredible progression throughout the sport, especially on the women's side of things, and I'm hopeful we can maybe experience the podium picture again in 2030," he said.
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