MILAN, Italy — Annika Malasinski remembers the moment the doors closed on the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
An American skier is fighting to open the last Winter Olympic sport to womenOn a flight from Munich to Denver, she bought airplane Wi-Fi to join a conference call with the International Olympic Committee, convinced that the Nordic combined competition would finally be open to female athletes.
Then came the decision: ‘No.’ No explanation, no discussion. Just ‘no,’ and then they moved on to the next thing,” he told The Associated Press from his training base in Norway. “I cried for eight hours straight on that flight. By the time I got to Denver, my eyes were swollen shut. It felt like my world was falling apart.”
This was in June, 2022. And despite the ongoing campaign led by the Colorado athlete, now 24, her sport remains the latest to exclude women – even as Milan Cortina displays the highest level of female participation in Winter Games history at 47%.
Malasinski is a frequent top-10 finisher in the sport’s elite competitions, which combine ski jumping and cross-country skiing and require rigorous year-round training.
His younger brother, Nicklaus, will compete in the men’s event for the United States, and he plans to travel to northern Italy to cheer him on.
“It’s bittersweet. I know how hard he works, and he deserves it,” Malasinski said. “I play the same sport as him. I do the same ski jumps and ski the same courses. The only difference is I’m a woman.”
Female skiers racing in Seefeld, Austria last weekend protested the ban by raising their poles above their heads to form an X.
Men have competed in the Nordic combined since the first Winter Games more than a century ago in 1924 in Chamonix, France.
The sport is now at risk of being removed from the program for the next Winter Olympics in 2030. The IOC said the Nordic collective struggled to attract participation from enough countries and attracted limited television audiences.
Women were completely excluded from the first modern Olympics in 1896. When they were allowed to compete in Paris four years later, participation was limited to a few sports, including tennis, archery and croquet.
Track and field was opened to women only at the Amsterdam Games in 1928 – but restrictions were imposed around the belief of women’s fragility. Although the 800 meters was originally included, it was later withdrawn for more than three decades.
The first women’s Olympic marathon wasn’t held in Los Angeles until 1984 — 88 years after the debut of the race inspired by an ancient Greek war.
Since then almost all differences have been eliminated, although some disparities remain. At the Summer Olympics, women compete in the seven-event heptathlon, while men compete in the 10-event decathlon.
At the Winter Games, progress came even later. Ski jumping was not restricted to women as recently as the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and was introduced in Sochi four years later.
Cross-country skiing’s distance overhaul is the most recent and extensive change. In Milan Cortina, men and women will race the same distance across all events for the first time in Olympic history.
Previously, the longest race for women topped 30 kilometers compared to 50 for men. Both will now have a 50-kilometer mass start race — like at last year’s Nordic Ski World Championships.
Malasinski said he would continue his campaign for inclusion, now focused on the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps.
“I’m a very proud man,” he said. “If I put my mind to something, I know I can do it.”
“It just lit a fire for me,” he said. “We deserve to be there, and I will fight until 2030 because this is our rightful place.” ___
Winter Olympics: /hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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