The Japanese city of Sapporo is not applying to host the 2030 Winter Olympics. This could also have an impact on the Nordic combined team, which is fighting for its future. DSV sports director Horst Hüttel classifies the situation.
Is Nordic combined at risk of being eliminated from the Olympics in 2030? This fear at least gained new ground on Wednesday (October 11th) after the Japanese city of Sapporo announced that it would not apply for the Games in seven years. Japan has had some success in Nordic combined and has been one of the top teams in the World Cup in recent years. The sport would probably have had a permanent place at possible games in Sapporo. In contrast, the other three applicants USA (Salt Lake City), Sweden (Stockholm) and France (Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur and Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes) are not known as big nations in the Nordic Combined.
Nordic combination at a crossroads
Sapporo’s withdrawn application due to massive corruption scandals in connection with the Olympic Games in Tokyo in the summer of 2021 has also made the German Ski Association (DSV) sit up and take notice. “Japan is certainly the nation of applicants that is most closely linked to Nordic combined,” says DSV sports director Horst Hüttel in an interview Sports in the East. “How much it matters in the end is difficult to quantify. But in the so-called ‘Host Nation’, wishes and requests are also taken into account.”
Like many other nations and athletes, the DSV is fighting for the survival of the Nordic Combined. The sport is threatened Olympic exit in installments. Too little performance density, a lack of diversity in the competitions and unsatisfactory viewing figures – these are the criticisms of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The Nordic combined athletes have no place at the 2026 Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. Men are also threatened with extinction. Sapporo’s halted Olympic plans therefore do not bode well.
Jenny Nowak (r.) and Nathalie Armbruster, together with Julian Schmid and Vinzenz Geiger, won World Championship silver in Planica. They have so far been denied participation in the Olympic Games.
Hüttel: “The numbers are for us”
But the Nordic World Ski Championships in 2025 and the Winter Olympics in 2026 will be more decisive, says Hüttel. These two major events need to be “designed as positively as possible” if the IOC wants to make a decision afterwards. According to Hüttel, there are enough arguments for continuing the “supreme discipline”. “The numbers are in our favor,” says the 55-year-old. In the last three editions of the Olympic Games, the number of participating nations was gradually increased to 17. “That means the number of nations is there,” said Hüttel.
The “Nations help nations” principle, according to which nations that are stronger in sport, such as Germany, Norway and Austria, enter into cooperation with other countries, is also getting off to a good start. The DSV passes on its know-how to Switzerland, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, for example. Two Czech athletes are to be integrated into the World Cup team in the upcoming season.
“Positive response” to new things Competition format
DSV also sees itself in a good position with the newly introduced compact format. The result in the jump only determines the starting order of the athletes in cross-country skiing. Enormous time gaps, which often took the tension out of the race even before it started, should now be a thing of the past, at least in this format.
“The dramaturgy is immediately there,” explains Hüttel. The response from athletes, associations and spectators to the new competition at the Grand Prix in Villach, Austria, at the beginning of September was “exceptionally positive”. Therefore, there will also be a small crystal ball in compact format in the coming World Cup season. “We have done our homework,” says Hüttel.
Criticism of FIS President Eliasch
However, he would like significantly more support from the international umbrella organization FIS. In the person of its not undisputed President Johan Eliasch, this could “act more strongly and give an even clearer external commitment to the IOC and the public” for the Nordic Combined. Eliasch is “not really a fighter in the smaller disciplines,” criticizes Hüttel. In addition, the FIS is “more concerned with itself at the moment” in view of the challenges posed by climate change and a modification of the competition calendar.
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