Colorado senators urge International Olympic Committee to add Women’s Nordic combined
Only Olympic sport not offering both men's and women's competition
Courtesy Photo/Nocogirls
U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper of Colorado have sent a letter to the International Olympic Committee urging the body to add women’s Nordic combined to the Olympic games and dissuading them from cutting the sport as a whole.
Nordic combined is the only Olympic sport that does not have both a men’s and women’s competition, and the IOC has expressed removing the men’s event rather than add the women’s.
“Nordic combined has been part of the Winter Olympics since the first games in 1924. In the U.S. state of Colorado, ski jumping and cross-country skiing are staples of winter sports,” reads the letter. “Jumps were built across our state, including at Steamboat Springs’ Howelsen Hill, the oldest continuously operating ski area in North America.”
Niklas Malacinski and Ben Loomis are representing the United States as the two Nordic combined athletes at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games.
Malacinski hails from Steamboat Springs and his sister, Annika, is one of the vocal leaders in the push to convince the IOC to let women compete. Annika Malacinski is currently ranked 10th in the World Cup standings.
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Alexa Brabec, also from Steamboat Springs, is ranked second in the World Cup standings and posted a World Cup victory on Jan. 30 in Seefeld, Austria. She has reached the podium on six occasions this season.
The IOC had stated one of the reasons it was not including the women’s competition is lack of diversity among the winners of the competition. Brabec’s win negates that point, according to Olympic Nordic combined medalist and World Champion Todd Lodwick.
“Her win shows that more countries are competitive than the traditional Scandinavian powers, which was what the International Olympic committee cited as a reason for it not being an Olympic sport,” said Lodwick. “Her win is a watershed moment for the sport, where the IOC can no longer deny women entry.”
The third American woman competing on the World Cup stage is Tara Geraghty-Moats. Ranked 11th in the World Cup standings, she has podiumed this season as well — placing third Feb. 1 in Seefeld.
A decision on the future of the sport is expected to be made following the conclusion of the Milan Cortina Games on Feb. 22.
“Women’s Nordic combined deserves a place in the Olympics, and expanding that opportunity for these athletes is the right choice over eliminating tradition,” wrote Bennet and Hickenlooper in their letter. “We would welcome the opportunity to discuss how we might work together to achieve this important goal.”
This story is from SteamboatPilot.com.
