The last closed door

Standing on the sidelines

For American skier Annika Malacinski, ranked tenth in the world nordic combined, the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics unfolded in a different way than you'd expect. Her brother, Niklas, who is ranked 29th in the world, competed at the Olympics the discipline she has mastered, while she watched from the stands. Nordic combined is the only Winter Olympic sport that excludes women entirely. 

Record milestone, glaring exception

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said the Milano-Cortina as a landmark moment for gender equality, boasting that 47 per cent of athletes are women, a Winter Games record. But this milestone is overshadowed by a stubborn reality. The sport of nordic combined, which combines ski jumping and cross-country-skiing remains closed to female competitors. Each of these sports individually have female categories at the Games. 

A century of waiting

Nordic combined is a discipline as old as the Winter Games themselves having been a fixture at every Olympics since the inaugural year in Chamonix in 1924. Historically though, the sport offered no place for women. It wasn’t until the mid-2010’s women’s classifications were introduced, with the first women’s championship taking place in 2017. As the sport gained traction, women made their debut on the World Cup circuit and at the Youth Olympic Games in 2020. Yet at these Olympics proceed, only men were allowed to chase gold. 

The fight to equality

The exclusion of women’s nordic combined from the Olympics is just the latest chapter in a long history of female athletes getting second-class treatment in sports. At the 2012 London Games, Japan’s world champion women’s football team and Australia’s three-time silver medalist women’s basketball team were booked on economy class flights while their less decorated male counterparts flew business class. The U.S. women’s hockey team fought a long court battle for equitable pay and support that their male counterparts received without question. Now, in Milan, the continued exclusion of women from an entire discipline serves yet another reminder of the unequal treatment that women in sports face. 

Unfinished business

These systemic barriers persist even as the Olympic movement evolves. The IOC’s advances in gender equity are real. The introduction of new mixed-gender events and the increase in female athletes are tangible steps forward, born from decades of advocacy. These gains show that progress is possible. But the spirit of equality is compromised when an entire sport remains locked to women despite meeting the competitive standards required of Olympic events. The IOC has built a stage for equality, yet certain doors remain closed. 

The legacy of the 2026 Games will hinge on more than participation quotas. It will be judged on whether the promise of equality extends to every sport on the program. If the world’s top female nordic combined athletes must watch from the stands while their male counterparts compete for gold, then the Olympic ideal remains, like their dreams of competition, frustratingly out of reach.