The International Ski and Snowboard Federation FIS has worked in recent years to develop Nordic combined into an equal sport and to establish women’s combined at the top level. The purely “male affair” should be a thing of the past. Efforts had already begun in 2016 to bring the sport into the program for the 2022 Winter Olympics for women as well.
2021 for the first time a World Cup
That failed, but in 2020 the first World Cup started and at the Youth Olympics there was a girls’ competition for the first time in the same year. In 2021, the first World Championships for women also took place and only a few days ago at the end of May 2022, the equalization of prize money for men and women was once again placed on the agenda of the FIS Committee as an important item.
Landmark IOC vote in late June
Nonetheless, athletes are now looking at the International Olympic Committee’s decision at the end of the month with equal concern and tenseness. Because when a vote is taken on June 24th as to whether the combined athletes can take part in the Olympic Games in 2026, i.e. four years late, the future of the entire sport may be up for vote.
Because the IOC is committed to the issue of equality, it wants to have competitions for men and women in all disciplines at the Olympic Games. Giving Nordic Nordic athletes a chance to showcase themselves in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, where the 2026 Games will be held, could give the sport a real boost. The German World Cup participant Svenja Würth also says this to “sport.de”: “In terms of funding alone, we would have completely different options if the discipline were to become an Olympic discipline.”
Olympic cancellation could mean the end of the sport
However, if the IOC decides against it at the end of June and rejects the combined athletes, this could also mean the end for the men in view of the committee’s equal rights agenda.
Then the FIS would have a hard time securing the continued existence of the sport, especially financially. Less media coverage also means less sponsorship and prize money, athletes may no longer be able to afford the sport and would migrate, and one of the six disciplines that have always been part of the Winter Olympics could disappear forever. Rise or decline? Nordic combined is at a crossroads.