Nordic combined

Nordic combined, competitive winter sport that blends ski jumping and cross-country skiing. It was one of the six disciplines featured at the inaugural Chamonix 1924 Olympic Winter Games and remained a Winter Olympic event, for male athletes, through the 2026 Milano-Cortina Games, after which it was eliminated from the program. Between 2014 and 2026 Nordic combined was the only Olympic sport without a women’s event.

History and organization

The techniques and events that make up Nordic skiing evolved in the hilly terrain of Norway and the other Scandinavian countries. Nordic combined originated as a sport in Norway in the mid-19th century when contests combining ski jumping and cross-country skiing were held at annual carnivals. In 1892 the first major Nordic combined competition took place, at the Holmenkollen Ski Festival in Oslo. What is now the Fédération Internationale de Ski et de Snowboard (FIS; International Ski and Snowboard Federation) began holding world championships in 1925 and a World Cup circuit in 1983. Women’s Nordic combined was added to the World Cup circuit in 2020 and the world championships program in 2021.

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Equipment

Nordic combined requires specialized FIS-regulated equipment for both ski jumping and cross-country skiing. Ski-jumping equipment includes skis that are wide and long, with a maximum allowable length based on the athlete’s body weight and height. The boots must precisely fit the athlete’s feet and allow the skier to lean forward during flight, and the bindings are mounted slightly behind each ski’s midpoint. A ski-jumping suit must fit closely to the athlete’s body when in an upright position, be made from a single, air-permeable microfiber material, and meet strict limits on thickness.

Cross-country equipment includes skis that are light and narrow, with a minimum allowable length based on the athlete’s height. The boots are light and flexible, and the equal-length poles must not exceed the athlete’s height or be shorter than hip level. Cross-country suits are thinner than those used in ski jumping and are made with stretchy, air-permeable materials. Athletes often wear thermal base layers under their body-hugging suits in colder temperatures.

Scoring and rules

The standard scoring system used in most Nordic combined competitions, including individual and team events, is the Gundersen method. Developed by Norwegian Nordic combined athlete Gunder Gundersen, it was introduced in the mid-1980s and first used at the Winter Olympics in 1988 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The method converts point results from the ski-jumping phase into time deficits for the cross-country race phase. The athlete with the highest ski-jumping score begins first, and subsequent skiers start in a staggered order determined by their ski-jumping score. The first athlete to cross the finish line wins.

Ski-jumping points are awarded or deducted on the basis of a combination of distance jumped and the athlete’s style and execution. Style is evaluated by judges from takeoff through flight, landing, and outrun. Key elements include takeoff posture, a stable, symmetric body position with fully extended legs, and effective use of air pressure during flight. The landing should be smooth, with the head and upper body raised, the arms moving forward and upward, and one ski placed farther forward than the other (the telemark position). During the outrun, the athlete is expected to maintain the telemark position for approximately 10–15 meters (33–49 feet).

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Athletes in the Nordic combined can be disqualified for a number of reasons, such as equipment and suit violations, false starts, and unsportsmanlike conduct in the cross-country phase of a competition.

Events and formats

The Olympic program for Nordic combined consisted of two individual competitions and one team competition. The individual events began with ski jumping—one on the normal hill, the other on the large hill—each followed by a 10-km cross-country race. In the team competition, squads of two athletes jumped from the large hill and then competed against other teams in a 7.5-km cross-country relay race. Each team’s total ski-jumping score determined the starting order of the race.

The FIS World Cup circuit program features additional event formats. These include the mass start and individual compact. The mass start, introduced in 2009, begins with a cross-country race rather than ski jumping. All athletes start the race simultaneously and earn points on the basis of their finishing position. The running order of the ski-jumping competition follows the results of the cross-country race, with the winner getting to jump last. The individual compact, introduced in 2023, follows the traditional competition order by opening with ski jumping, followed by a cross-country race. But, to encourage closer finishes in the cross-country race, racers are then staggered closely together at fixed intervals, giving less of an advantage to the winner of the ski-jumping portion.

Controversy over women’s participation at the Winter Olympics and removal from the Olympic program

Women’s cross-country skiing was added to the Winter Olympics in 1952, and women’s ski jumping was added in 2014. Nevertheless, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) never added a women’s Nordic combined event at the Winter Olympic Games. It considered and rejected petitions to do so on several occasions. The last such decision came in 2022, when the IOC voted against adding the women’s event at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, stating that the sport did not have enough female participants and that it lacked a sufficiently sized audience, which are among the criteria for evaluating a sport’s potential inclusion in the Games. Moreover, the IOC warned that the men’s event was at risk of being eliminated because the number of athletes competing had declined in recent years and few countries outside the sport’s northern European heartland had sent competitors to recent Games.

The IOC’s decision drew strong criticism from advocates of the sport, who said that it contradicted the Olympic Games’ purported commitment to gender equality. In July 2026 the IOC announced that Nordic combined, for either men or women, will not be included in the program of the upcoming 2030 Winter Games, citing the lack of participation and fan enthusiasm for the sport.