Nordic combined is out of the 2030 French Alps Winter Olympics. The International Olympic Committee’s executive board voted on Tuesday in Lausanne to drop the discipline from the programme. The move ends more than a century on the Olympic stage and any near-term hope of a women’s event in the sport.
The decision had been telegraphed for four years. The IOC placed Nordic combined under formal review in 2022 alongside snowboard parallel giant slalom, citing concerns about audience reach and the concentration of medals in a handful of countries, and the numbers had not moved by the Milano Cortina 2026 Games, where the discipline ranked lowest in 11 of the 14 popularity indicators the IOC measures across broadcast, digital media, ticketing, and press.
Four Cycles at the Bottom of the Rankings
The IOC’s verdict was built on data the federation has been collecting for more than a decade. The committee measures 14 popularity indicators, from broadcast coverage to digital engagement to ticket sales, across up to 50 markets per indicator. Nordic combined ranked lowest among all Olympic Winter Games disciplines on most of those indicators at Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018, Beijing 2022, and Milano Cortina 2026. At the most recent Games, it sat at the bottom in 11 of the 14 indicators assessed.
The medal tables told the same story. Only five National Olympic Committees won medals in Nordic combined across the last four editions of the Winter Games, and the IOC’s executive board had previously lamented that the discipline lacked strong international representation outside of Europe.
The cut is part of a broader refresh of the Olympic programme. The board approved 16 new events and three new disciplines for Alpes 2030, alongside the addition of ski mountaineering as a new sport, details of which are in the IOC’s full Alpes 2030 programme release. Athlete quotas will set the next Winter Games at 3,046 competitors, the first gender-equal Winter Olympics by quota, with 1,525 women and 1,521 men.
What Replaces It in the French Alps
Three additions fill the gap, all approved at different points in the IOC’s 2026 calendar. Freeride, in both skiing and snowboarding, debuts with four events and 44 athletes (22 women and 22 men), capitalising on a youth fanbase the IOC credits for the discipline’s rapid international growth on a natural field of play.
- Freeride: 4 events across skiing and snowboarding, 44 athletes (22 women and 22 men), natural field of play
- Synchro9: 9 skaters per team, contested in knockout rounds with head-to-head battles
- Ski mountaineering: individual and sprint disciplines, plus a mixed relay, approved by the 146th IOC Session in Lausanne in June 2026
Snowboard parallel giant slalom, the other sport under review since 2022, survived the cut. The IOC said PGS had shown “significant improvement since Beijing 2022 across a number of popularity indicators” and would return in 2030 without a standalone field of play. The retention came with a caveat: PGS would share the venue with snowboarding’s other events, a concession the discipline had pushed for with Czech two-time gold medalist Ester Ledecka as its public face. The host venue for ski mountaineering will be Montgenèvre, integrated with the existing competition venue and the Olympic Village in Briançon, ensuring operational efficiency and athlete convenience.
The Sport’s Last Olympic Outing in Milan Cortina
The discipline’s curtain call at Milano Cortina 2026 did little to change the IOC’s calculation. Norway swept all three Nordic combined golds in Italy, including the men’s team sprint on the final day of the events. Jen Luraas Oftebro walked away with three of those golds.
Two of the three events sold out their 4,500 allocated tickets, and 90% of the team event’s tickets were sold, according to Lasse Ottesen, the FIS Nordic combined race director, as detailed in the medal-by-medal case built during Milan Cortina. The cross-country venue has twice that capacity, so the seating sections “look a little bit thinner” even when the tickets are gone.
A Czech athlete put the case for keeping the sport. “Nordic combined is such a beautiful sport and I think it deserves much more popularity because I think the races are really, really fun to watch and the athletes are doing amazing,” Jan Vytrval said. “It deserves much more than to be deleted from the Olympics.” Finland’s Eero Hirvonen, who shared a team silver with Ilkka Herola and added an individual bronze, struck a more measured note. “We have done our part with competing,” Hirvonen said. “I hope it helps.”
FIS Pushes Back, the IOC Holds the Line
The federation that runs the sport, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, did not hide its frustration. The IOC’s data, the federation said, has been fed back to all International Federations to help them improve.
I am at a loss for words and struggle to understand the reasoning behind it. Nordic combined has been at the heart of Nordic skiing and part of the Olympic Winter Games since 1924.
Lasse Ottesen, the FIS Nordic combined race director, issued the statement after the IOC’s announcement on Tuesday. The federation said it had exceeded the requirements the IOC set out in 2022, building out the women’s World Cup and media coverage of the discipline. Audience numbers grew slightly across the last three Olympic cycles, Ottesen conceded, though not as much as the federation had hoped. The federation also noted that adding women to the programme, the route the IOC ultimately rejected, would have been the only sustainable way forward.
IOC Sports Director Pierre Ducrey, speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, defended the verdict. The IOC had assessed the discipline, not the men’s or women’s version of it, he said, weighing universality and audience reach rather than gender parity alone. The deciding factors, Ducrey said, were low popularity and a high concentration of a few countries at the top of the sport.
IOC President Kirsty Coventry said the decision “may come as a disappointment”, and told Nordic combined officials that the possibility could “remain open for 2034”. The sport’s final Olympic years had been shadowed by a parallel fight over gender parity, a fight the 2030 removal effectively ended, as detailed in how the women’s Nordic combined Olympic bid collapsed. In Steamboat Springs, Colorado, the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, which has produced 40 US Olympians in ski jumping and Nordic combined since 1932, said in its own statement that it does not support eliminating the sport as a means to achieve gender parity.
The Door Left Open for 2034 and Beyond
The IOC has not closed the door. Nordic combined will remain on the programme of the Dolomiti Valtellina 2028 Winter Youth Olympic Games, giving the discipline an international stage to grow on. The sport is also eligible for inclusion at the Utah 2034 Olympic Winter Games through the candidate discipline pathway under the Fit for the Future strategic framework.
The next round of programme reviews will be governed by a new framework approved by the IOC Session on 25 June 2026, applied from Brisbane 2032 onwards. For Alpes 2030, the gender push is visible in four sports, with two reaching full parity:
| Sport | Female Quota (Current) | Female Quota (Alpes 2030) |
|---|---|---|
| Luge | 44.3% | 50% |
| Skiing | 48.6% | 50% |
| Bobsleigh | 32.9% | 39.5% |
| Ice hockey | 43.4% | 45.6% |
Alpes 2030 is set to be the first gender-equal Olympic Winter Games by quota, with 126 events on the programme and Nordic combined out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why was Nordic combined dropped from the 2030 Winter Olympics?
The International Olympic Committee said the discipline ranked lowest in 11 of 14 popularity indicators at Milano Cortina 2026, and was at the bottom of most indicators at Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018, and Beijing 2022 as well. Only five National Olympic Committees won medals in the discipline across the last four editions, and the IOC’s executive board cited a “high concentration of a few countries at the top of the sport” as a key factor in its decision.
Can Nordic combined return to the Winter Olympics in 2034?
Yes, the door is open. IOC President Kirsty Coventry told Nordic combined officials the possibility could “remain open for 2034”. The sport will stay on the 2028 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Dolomiti Valtellina, and it is eligible for inclusion at Utah 2034 under the Fit for the Future strategic framework’s candidate discipline pathway.
What new sports are in the 2030 Winter Olympics instead of Nordic combined?
Freeride, in both skiing and snowboarding, and synchro9, a nine-skater team figure skating event, will debut at Alpes 2030. Ski mountaineering, proposed by the French Alps 2030 Organising Committee, was approved as a new sport by the IOC Session in June 2026. Snowboard parallel giant slalom, the other sport under review since 2022, was retained.
Have any other Winter Olympic sports been removed in recent decades?
Nordic combined is the first Winter Olympic discipline to be removed under the IOC’s current programme review process, which has been applied in earnest since 2022. In the broader history of the Olympic Games, sports such as tug-of-war, polo, and croquet once featured in the Summer Games before being dropped in the early 20th century.
What happens to women’s Nordic combined now?
The IOC had rejected adding a women’s Nordic combined event to the 2026 programme in 2022, citing universality concerns. The 2030 removal closes off any chance of a women’s Olympic debut in the discipline for at least the next two Games. The FIS had lobbied for women’s inclusion as a way to keep the sport on the Olympic programme.
