Nordic combined - the only event in which women cannot compete

Nordic combined athletes continue to campaign for their inclusion in the Winter Olympics

American Nordic combined skier Annika Malacinski dreams of becoming an Olympic athlete.

Instead, she must watch from the sidelines as her younger brother, Niklas, realises that dream at the 2026 Winter Games.

Nordic combined - a combination of cross-country skiing and ski jumping - is the only Olympic discipline in which women cannot compete.

The event has been a feature of the Winter Olympics since the first edition in Chamonix in 1924 but has only ever been open to men, despite there being women's World Cup and World Championship events.

Malacinski, 24, has been campaigning for the women's event to feature at the Olympics for years and in 2022 a formal proposal was made to include it in Italy this year.

A similar proposal was made before the Beijing Olympics four years ago - both were denied.

In a post on Instagram in November, Malacinski said her Olympic dream had been taken away from her "not because of my ability but because of my gender".

"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."

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) says the event is "in question overall" and that it is not a discussion about women but about the sport as a whole, citing low participation across different countries and a lack of viewership.

This year 36 athletes are taking part in the men's event in Italy, down from 55 at Beijing 2022.

The IOC also says Milan-Cortina is the most gender-equal Winter Games with 47% of the athletes women, while 50 of the 116 events are for females.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams said: "To all intents and purposes we are gender balanced. We are taking a look at this [Nordic combined] 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."

Annika Malacinski is ranked inside the top 15 women's Nordic combined skiers in the world

But Malacinski says the sport has the same number of people competing in it as other niche sports, while she is concerned the sport's inclusion at the next Winter Olympics will be based solely on the performance of the men's event.

In an interview with The Guardian, she said there are more than 40 women competing at a high level who are waiting for an opportunity to appear in the Olympics.

"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," she said.

"It's not just me fighting for women, it is me fighting for the sport."

She said she plans to support her brother at the Olympics but will also be using it as an opportunity to raise awareness by holding up signs and encouraging people at home to tune in.

In 2023, women competing at a World Cup event drew beards and moustaches on their faces to protest against the decision not to include them in the Olympics.

They also held up their ski poles in an 'X' to highlight their #noeXception social media campaign.

Billy Demong, a five-time Olympian in Nordic combined told the Associated Press the decision not to include the women's event in Italy is a "travesty", and "one of the biggest moves against gender equity in the Olympic movement in history".