Winter Olympic Games Milano-Cortina 2026 Sports Programme Road to Milano-Cortina 2026

[NearPup 3,002]

1 hour ago, heywoodu said:

Judging by her results she is at least a lot more competitive than Elizabeth Swaney was. I mean, not really competitive for the medals and that's totally fine, but not just someone who literally only shows up to avoid falling and so get the points.

Oh ya, she is legitimately a good skier from what I can see. Likely not good enough to ever make team USA but def good enough to have a solid middle of the pack showing at the Olympics.

[JonPhi 248]

12 hours ago, heywoodu said:

I would assume when cutting the team event from 4 to 2 athletes, at least countries can have two teams...otherwise it's going to be an epically empty field of athletes in the Nordic combined especially.

 

A maximum of three Nordic combined athletes per country are allowed to compete at the Olympics, so there is no possibility of fielding two teams. The field of participants has been reduced to 36 athletes.

[heywoodu 14,866]

Just now, JonPhi said:

A maximum of three Nordic combined athletes per country are allowed to compete at the Olympics, so there is no possibility of fielding two teams. The field of participants has been reduced to 36 athletes.

Oh wow, that is just awful. Women trying so hard to get into the Olympics in their sport, but instead of being accepted (for which I believe 2026 was indeed too early), their entire sport is being killed  

[NearPup 3,002]

21 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

Oh wow, that is just awful. Women trying so hard to get into the Olympics in their sport, but instead of being accepted (for which I believe 2026 was indeed too early), their entire sport is being killed  

Ya, the statement the IOC made when they declined to include women's nordic combined made it sound like the entire sport is on life support.

[intoronto 5,567]

7 hours ago, heywoodu said:

Oh wow, that is just awful. Women trying so hard to get into the Olympics in their sport, but instead of being accepted (for which I believe 2026 was indeed too early), their entire sport is being killed  

The IOC stated the following:

- Only 4 countries have won medals in the last 3 cycles

- Lowest viewership (by far) of any sport.

 

Highly unlikely this changes for 2026, and its likely the sport will be removed. 

[heywoodu 14,866]

5 hours ago, intoronto said:

The IOC stated the following:

- Only 4 countries have won medals in the last 3 cycles

- Lowest viewership (by far) of any sport.

 

Highly unlikely this changes for 2026, and its likely the sport will be removed. 

Yeah, it's not entirely impossible to understand, but it's definitely sad to see one of the most classic winter sports disappear (Nordic combined competitions are kind of the origin story of separate big time ski jumping and cross-country skiing competitions, after all).

 

I can deal fine with the summer changes, but the winter program is already quite small (understandably) and seeing so many things I genuinely like go away and be replaced with random stuff or simply changed for the worse...meh  

[stratocumulus 68]

13 hours ago, JonPhi said:

A maximum of three Nordic combined athletes per country are allowed to compete at the Olympics, so there is no possibility of fielding two teams. The field of participants has been reduced to 36 athletes.

This is pure disaster. I see it as a punishment for certain countries that specialized in that event. It has its problems (why not finish on the hill instead of cross country track? lack of balance between the jumping and the running elements in favour of the latter), but there are sports with much more deeper issues (weightlifting, boxing, modern pentahtlon) that are kept in the programme. The best example is the ModPent for me which was made somehow watchable through the 90 minutes format. So it is possible to elevate a sport.

 

Still, I do not see any point in removing team jumping from the programme. As I sad before, in a field of 50 qualified jumpers you get 8 teams of 4 people each and 18 quotas left for other countries (6x2 to fill up the field for the super team + 6 singles) and  - pretty much short track or fencing conditions. That would fit in my view and you could do both team jumping and the super team. 

 

Honestly, the news that there is no team jumping only matches in my eyes the mistake of not having all team tournaments in fencing for a few cycles. Fortunately it was turned around after a few years, I very much hope for the same at least for ski jumping.  

[stratocumulus 68]

6 hours ago, intoronto said:

The IOC stated the following:

- Only 4 countries have won medals in the last 3 cycles

- Lowest viewership (by far) of any sport.

Is there a link to the statement you could share?

[heywoodu 14,866]

42 minutes ago, stratocumulus said:

It has its problems (why not finish on the hill instead of cross country track?

That's the mass start event, which more often than not results in an extremely boring cross-country race and gives a massive advantage to the athletes who are mostly good jumpers.

Edited August 13 by heywoodu

[stratocumulus 68]

1 hour ago, heywoodu said:

That's the mass start event, which more often than not results in an extremely boring cross-country race and gives a massive advantage to the athletes who are mostly good jumpers.

But it gives you a chance to finish in a jumping stadium, which is mostly better filled and "concentrated" than the cross-country stadium AND it allows for competing in better TV-slots. I believe so at least, but I am coming from a country that is totally crazy for ski jumping, so I might be biased a little  Regarding the boring cross country event there might also be ways to challenge it - some kind of a sprint event instead of a mass start? Another "exchange rate" between the cross country time and jumping points? I agree that the mass start is not really made for nordic combined, but I do not agree one cannot do anything about it