Nordic combined is the only Olympic sport that doesn't allow women to compete, despite athletes' efforts to change that. They say their odds for 2030 hinge on people watching men's events this week.

TESERO, Italy (AP) — U.S. team skier Annika Malacinski attended the Nordic combined at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Tuesday to cheer for her younger brother. And protest. Annika came from her training base in Norway to watch brother Niklas finish 13th in his Olympic debut.

Nordic combined — ski jumping and cross-country in one — remains the only Winter Olympic sport that does not include women, even though women compete on the World Cup circuit and at world championships. “It’s heartbreaking, it really is,” U.S. team skier Annika Malacinski told the Associated Press.

U.S. team skier Annika Malacinski attended the Nordic combined at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Tuesday to cheer for her younger brother. And protest. Annika came from her training base in Norway to watch brother Niklas finish 13th in his Olympic debut.

When organizers describe the 2026 Winter Olympics as the most gender-balanced in history, there is one glaring exception: Nordic combined. The discipline — which merges ski jumping with a 10-kilometer cross-country race — remains closed to women at the Olympic level,

Nordic combined is the only Olympic sport at Milan-Cortina that does not have a women's event. BBC Sport takes a look at why.

Sibling Annika and Niklas Malacinski represent Team USA in Nordic combined, an original Olympic sport. One is at Milan Games. The other isn't.

Female athletes excluded from participation in demanding double-discipline events at Milano-Cortina