winter sport
Winter sports or winter activities are competitive sports or non-competitive recreational activities which are played on snow or ice. Most are variations of skiing, ice skating and sledding. Traditionally, such games were only played in cold are ...
in which athletes compete in
cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreatio ...
Nordic combined at the Winter Olympics
The Nordic combined events have been contested at the Winter Olympic Games since 1924. The first competition involved 18 km cross-country skiing, followed by ski jumping.
History
Whoever earned the most points from both competitions won ...
FIS Nordic Combined World Cup
The FIS Nordic Combined World Cup is a Nordic combined competition organized yearly by International Ski Federation, representing the highest level in international competition for this sport. It was first arranged for the 1983–84 season. Team e ...
has been held since 1983. Many Nordic combined competitions use the Gundersen method, where placement in the ski jumping segment results in time (dis)advantages added to the contestant's total in the cross-country skiing segment (e.g. the ski jumping winner starts the cross-country skiing race at 00:00:00 while the one with the lowest jumping score starts with the longest time penalty).
History
The first major competition was held in 1892 in Oslo at the first
Holmenkollen ski jump
Holmenkollbakken is a large ski jumping hill located at Holmenkollen in Oslo, Norway. It has a hill size of HS134, a construction point of K-120, and a capacity for 70,000 spectators. Holmenkollen has hosted the Holmenkollen Ski Festival sinc ...
.
King Olav V of Norway
Olav V (; born Prince Alexander of Denmark; 2 July 1903 – 17 January 1991) was the King of Norway from 1957 until his death in 1991.
Olav was the only child of King Haakon VII of Norway and Maud of Wales. He became heir apparent to the No ...
was an able jumper and competed in the Holmenkollen Ski Festival in the 1920s. Nordic combined was in the
1924 Winter Olympics
The 1924 Winter Olympics, officially known as the I Olympic Winter Games (french: Iers Jeux olympiques d'hiver) and commonly known as Chamonix 1924 ( frp, Chamôni 1924), were a winter multi-sport event which was held in 1924 in Chamonix, France ...
and has been on the program ever since. Until the 1950s, the cross-country race was held first, followed by the ski jumping. This was reversed as the difference in the cross-country race tended to be too big to overcome in ski jumping. The sport has been dominated by the Norwegians, supported by the Finns. It was not until 1960 that the Nordic grip on this discipline was broken when West GermanGeorg Thoma won the gold medal at the
1960 Winter Olympics
The 1960 Winter Olympics (officially the VIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Squaw Valley 1960) were a winter multi-sport event held from February 18 to 28, 1960, at the Squaw Valley Resort (now known as Palisades Tahoe) in Squaw Val ...
.
It was decided in early-November 2016 that women's competitions were to be established on FIS-level starting during the second half of the 2010s with inclusion at world championships starting in 2021 and at the Olympic Winter Games in 2022. But Olympic debut for women in 2022 was cancelled in July 2018 by IOC who was asking for more development time for this discipline; they likely will be added in 2026. In May 2018 the FIS Congress made several decisions regarding the inclusion of women in the sport of Nordic Combined. At the
2022 Winter Olympics
The 2022 Winter Olympics (2022年冬季奥林匹克运动会), officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), was an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beij ...
, Nordic combined is the only sport with exclusively men's events. As of 2019, women will be officially included in FIS Junior World Championships. It was confirmed that 2021 will mark the start of the FIS World Championship program for women (senior level). 2018 marks the second year of the Continental Cup program for women, which will include a total of 12 events.
Competition
Formats and variations currently used in the World Cup are:
* Individual Gundersen: competition starts with one competition jump from a normal or large hill. Later on the same day, the cross-country race takes place. The winner starts at 00:00:00 and all other athletes start with time disadvantages according to their jumping score. The first to cross the finish line is the winner. A variation of this is the Final Individual Gundersen, consisting of two jumps and of cross-country skiing in free technique.
* Nordic Combined Triple: introduced in the 2013–14 FIS Nordic Combined World Cup, it features three different events on three days and one overall winner who is awarded extra World Cup points and prize money:
** Day 1: 1 jump & Prologue
** Day 2: 1 jump & Individual Gundersen (Top 50 from Day 1's competition)
** Day 3: 2 jumps & Final Individual Gundersen (Top 30 from Day 2's competition)
* Team Event: introduced in the 1980s, one team consists of four athletes who have one competition jump each. The total score of all four athletes determines the time disadvantages for the start of the ensuing cross-country race. The first team to cross the finish line wins.
* Team Sprint: teams consist of two athletes each. In the ski jumping part, every athlete makes one competition jump like in the Individual Gundersen or Team Event formats and the time behind for the start of the successive cross-country race. The team to arrive first at the finish line wins the competition.
Included in the rules but currently not used in World Cup:
* Penalty Race: instead adding a time disadvantage, distance is added to the cross-country part.
* Mass Start: the only format in which the cross-country part takes place before the ski jumping. All competitors start into a cross-country race in free technique at the same time. The final cross-country times are then converted into points for the ski jumping part. The winner is determined in a points-based system.
Events in the Olympics are: the sprint K120 individual, ski jumping K90 (70m), and Team/4x5km.
Equipment
*
Ski bindings
A ski binding is a device that connects a ski boot to the ski. Before the 1933 invention of ski lifts, skiers went uphill and down and cross-country on the same gear. As ski lifts became more prevalent, skis—and their bindings—became increasin ...
: secure only the toe of the boot to the ski. In cross-country, it must be placed so that not more than 57% of the entire ski length is used as the front part. In jumping, a cord or aluminum post attaches the heel of the boot to the ski to prevent tips from dropping and/or wobbling of skis during flight.
*
Ski boot Ski boots are footwear used in skiing to provide a way to attach the skier to skis using ski bindings. The ski/boot/binding combination is used to effectively transmit control inputs from the skier's legs to the snow.
History
Ski boots were lea ...
** For jumping, a high-backed, flexible yet firm boots with a low cut at the front, designed to allow the skier to lean forward during flight.
** For cross-country a skating boot is used.
*
Ski suit
A ski suit is a suit made to be worn over the rest of the clothes when skiing or snowboarding.helmet
* Skis: jumping skis may have a length of a maximum 145% of the total body height of the competitor. Cross-country skis may be up to 2 meters long.
* Ski poles
*
Ski wax
Ski wax is a material applied to the bottom of snow runners, including skis, snowboards, and toboggans, to improve their coefficient of friction performance under varying snow conditions. The two main types of wax used on skis are glide waxes and ...
: glide wax for speed is used in both types, and kick wax is used in cross-country.