July 7 (Reuters) - The International Olympic Committee on Tuesday dropped Nordic combined from the 2030 French Alps Winter Games, ending the Olympic run of a discipline that had featured in every edition since the inaugural winter cycle in 1924.
The decision, as part of a refreshment of the disciplines in the Games to make them more attractive toa younger audience, delivers a fatal blow to thecombination of ski jumping and cross-country skiing.
It had been fighting for survival since 2022, when Olympic chiefs rejected the addition of a women’s event for the 2026 Milano Cortina Games, citing a lack of global universality and a narrow base of competitive nations.
"Across most of the popularity indicators, Nordic combined ranked lowest among all Olympic Winter Games disciplines at Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018, Beijing 2022 and Milano Cortina 2026," the IOC said in a statement.
"At the most recent Olympic Winter Games, it was the lowest-ranked discipline in 11 of the 14 popularity indicators assessed. In addition, the discipline continues to face challenges in terms of universality and participation at the Olympic Games," it said.
FIS President Alexander Ospelt said after the IOC announcement: “Our first reaction is, inevitably, one of disappointment."
Finland's Ilkka Herola, who took a silver and a bronze in Milano Cortina, said: "This is an incredibly difficult day for our sport ... We respect the decision, but we firmly believe our sport still belongs on the Olympic stage. Our community will not stop working towards that goal."
IOC CHIEF COVENTRY ACKNOWLEDGES DISAPPOINTMENT
"We know and can fully understand that this may come as a disappointment," IOC President Kirsty Coventry said, adding that she had told Nordic combined officials that "the possibility could always remain open for 2034".
But the writinghad long beenon the wall. Throughout the Milano Cortina cycle, anxiety over the sport’s Olympic futureheavily overshadowedthe action on the cross-country slopes of Tesero and the jumping hills of Predazzo.
While Norway executed a clean sweep of the gold medals, the dominant performance carried a bittersweet undertone. Proponents of the sport had desperately hoped populous nations such as Germany and Japan would secure top-spot finishes to prove the discipline’s global appeal to broadcasters and the IOC.
In the end, however, the numbers spoke for themselves.
When the IOC’s executive board first raised the alarm in 2022 over the discipline's future, it explicitly cited a "concerning situation" driven by television viewership that was by far the lowest of any Winter Olympic sport over a three-Games cycle.
Coupled with a critical lack of national diversity among medal winners, the sport's rich cultural heritage could no longer protect what had effectively become a niche event, where a handful of countries monopolised the podium.
SNOWBOARD PARALLEL GIANT SLALOM SAVED
The IOC's axe leaves a particularly stinging legacy for gender equality advocates. Women’s Nordic combined had been gaining international momentum,with athletes and federations fiercely lobbying for an Olympic debut.
"This is heartbreaking. Athletes dedicate their lives to reaching the Olympic Games, and today that dream has been taken away from so many people," U.S. Nordic combined athlete Annika Malacinski said.
The IOC has, however, kept snowboard's parallel giant slalom, which had also been at risk, for those Games, noting improvement in the discipline.
"The IOC EB noted that PGS – as part of the discipline of snowboard – had demonstrated significant improvement since Beijing 2022 across a number of popularity indicators," it said.
The IOC also included freeride for skiing and snowboard,as well assynchro9 — a figure skating team event — in the 2030 Games.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann and Tommy Lund; Editing by Alison Williams)
