Nordic combined removed from Winter Olympics after 106 years

After 106 years, Nordic combined will no longer be an Olympic discipline. The International Olympic Committee's (IOC) executive committee made the decision Tuesday during a meeting in Lausanne, confirming the sport's exclusion from the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps.

The removal comes as no surprise, marking the end of a long struggle for a sport that has been part of the Winter Olympics since the inaugural Chamonix Games in 1924. Nordic combined has consistently had the smallest number of participating athletes among the sixteen sports on the Winter Games program since 1992.

The IOC cited "substandard performance" in key metrics like TV ratings, spectator numbers, social media attention, and a lack of broad international competition as reasons for its removal. For the past four editions, medals have been concentrated among just five nations: Norway, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Finland. Furthermore, Nordic combined was the sole Olympic sport that barred women from competing, hindering the IOC's gender equality mission.

IOC Director Pierre Ducrey explained that "too little progress has been made in recent years to keep them on the program." The lack of universality, a term the IOC uses to denote international competitiveness, was also a significant factor. The decision also paves the way for the 2030 Games to be the first gender-equal edition, as the exclusion of Nordic combined removes the last barrier.

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There has been too little progress in recent years to keep them on the program.