The one Winter Olympics event women are banned from - 'this is so unjust'

The Winter Olympics champions itself on worldwide participation and advancing gender equality, yet one discipline remains separate from the others. Nordic combined, an event combining ski jumping and cross-country skiing, stands as the sole Winter Olympic sport where female athletes are barred from taking part.

For American competitor Annika Malacinski, the ban is deeply personal. While she trains and competes on the international circuit, she travels to Italy not as a competitor but as an observer, supporting her younger brother Niklas as he makes his Olympic debut. "My brother is here fulfilling his dreams and I am not," Malacinski said.

"It's so bittersweet and I keep talking about that. It lights a fire in me because this is so unjust and in 2030 it's not going to be like this."

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The 24-year-old has emerged as one of the most prominent advocates pushing for the women's event to be included. She attended the competition, brandishing placards stating "No Exception" and "Make Olympics Gender Equal," transforming her attendance into a demonstration as much as a family occasion.

"It's heartbreaking, it really is," she said. "I want to come here with such a positive mindset, and I am a positive person, but at the same time it is so unjust that I can ski jump and I can ski but because I'm a woman."

Nordic combined has featured at the Winter Olympics since 1924, but remained exclusively male.

This is despite women taking part in World Cup and World Championship competitions for years. Numerous proposals were put forward to include women in both the Beijing 2022 and Milano-Cortina 2026 Games, yet both were turned down.

The International Olympic Committee maintains the decision isn't purely about gender. Officials cite participation figures and global reach as the key determining factors.

"To all intents and purposes, we are gender balanced," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said. "We are taking a look at this here, the participants generally are from a small number of countries - it needs to be more universal and we will take a look at it for the next Winter Games."

Another spokesperson added: "Going forward, we will take data points in order to evaluate these disciplines with respective events for French Alps 2030. If Nordic combined stays, women will be part of it."

Malacinski challenges this reasoning, contending that the sport has participation levels similar to those of other specialist Olympic events and shouldn't be assessed solely on the men's competition.

"For years, my team-mates and I have been speaking up, protesting, and fighting for the chance to stand on the same Olympic start line as the men," she said. "We're still here, we're still pushing, we're not giving up.

"Truthfully the IOC are just trying to take away the sport of Nordic combined so to solve equality they will just take away the sport. It's not just me fighting for women, it is me fighting for the sport."

This article first appeared on Mirror US.

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