Nordic Combined

Nordic Combined consists of a cross-country ski race and ski jumping. Originally, it was considered the most important Nordic skiing event by the Scandinavians. The discipline has been held at the Olympic Winter Games since the start, at Chamonix 1924. As of 2026, Norway has been most successful in this discipline, winning 38 medals and 18 golds, the double of the runner-up, Germany, with 18 medals and seven Olympic titles.

Norwegians Jørgen Graabak and Jens Lurås Oftebro lead the gold medal count in this discipline as of 2026, both with four Olympic titles. Eric Frenzel (GER) and Felix Gottwald lead the overall medal count, both with seven medals and three golds, followed by Graabak, with six. There are four other Nordic skiers with three Olympic gold medals, among them East German Ulrich Wehling, which won the title three times in a row, at a time when just one combined event was held.

The sport is governed internationally by the former Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS), which was founded on 2 February 1924 during the Chamonix Olympics. The FIS succeeded the Internationale Skikommission (CIS), which had been formed on 18 February 1910 in Christiania (today Oslo, Norway). Despite keeping the acronym FIS, on 26 May 2022, at the FIS Congress at Milano, Italy, its name was changed to the International Ski & Snowboard Federation. The FIS not only governs Nordic combined, but also the Olympic disciplines of Alpine skiing, cross country skiing, freestyle skiing, ski jumping, and snowboarding. As of January 2026, the FIS has 141 affiliated member nations.

As of 2026, the number of events has grown to three, all for men only. The two individual events both feature 10 km cross-country skiing, preceded by a ski jump from either the large hill or the normal hill. In the team event, first introduced in 1988 in Calgary, each member takes a jump from the large hill, followed by a four-person relay. In each cross-country race, the ski jumping leader starts first, with the other competitors starting behind him, with the delay determined by the difference in ski jumping points, termed the “Gundersen Method”.

Through 2026, Nordic combined is the only Winter Olympic discipline with no events for women, although that may change in the future, as women’s sports groups have been lobbying to add women’s Nordic combined to the Olympic Programme. Concurrently, however, there has been some discussion at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as to the place of Nordic combined in the Olympic Winter Games, men or women, including discussions about whether it should be dropped from the programme.