Prominent winter athletes such as Karl Geiger, Johannes Rydzek and Eric Frenzel have called for the inclusion of the Nordic combined women in the program of the Olympic Winter Games. “Friday’s decision is groundbreaking for the whole sport,” said six-time world champion Rydzek. Ski jumper Geiger, who did Nordic combined as a child, even worries about the future of the entire discipline. A sport “with such a tradition” should not fall out of the program, said Geiger. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will decide on Friday whether women will be accepted for the 2026 Winter Games. The concern: If the answer is “No”, the men’s combination could also fall in 2030.
Rydzek fears that too. “The Olympic Games, which live on tradition, shouldn’t start kicking their oldest sports out of the program just because they might not be that popular at the moment,” said the Olympic champion. Without the combination, later special jumpers like Geiger would lack the basis. “This is how a Nordic sport is slowly dying out,” said Rydzek. Eric Frenzel stated that he was “surprised” that “there is a deletion in the room. It should be thought positively and the women should be included,” said the sports soldier in an interview.
Combined is currently the only discipline at the Winter Games in which no women compete. The IOC has set itself the goal of gender balance – this could also be achieved with the end of men. The women have been demanding equal rights for years, but the application for admission to Beijing 2022 failed.
