Hoping for a Solid Landing
01/22/2025 11:38AM ● By Eugene Buchanan
Above: Nordic combined athlete Ella Wilson jumps at Howelsen Hill. The future of her sport is once again in jeopardy. Image courtesy of Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club.
Like its high-flying followers, funding for the Olympic discipline of Nordic combined – long a cornerstone of Steamboat Springs’ Olympic heritage – is, well, up in the air. Last June, USA Nordic Sport announced that it would no longer fund the national team program nor its two-year-old partnership with the Norwegian National Team, which gained U.S. athletes access to Norway’s training facilities, camps, coaches and wax technicians.
“It’s a big blow for local Nordic combined athletes,” says Steamboat Nordic combined Olympian Ben Berend, who competed in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. "If I’m a parent, maybe I’m now not wanting my kid to be in that program because it’s all going to be out-of-pocket. People go into programs that have opportunity and momentum.”
Another blow: its future as an Olympic discipline. While Steamboat’s Nordic heritage dates back to 1914 when Norwegian Carl Howelsen introduced the sport to town, after the upcoming 2026 Italy games, Nordic combined could get the axe. The International Olympic Committee is watching the sport closely, with plans to decide on its inclusion in fall 2025.
"Nordic combined has two major things going against it – lack of funding and the possibility of it not being in the Olympics,” Ben adds. “But this is how sports go; it’s a cycle, and there are ups and downs. There’s no rule that says they need to give it to every sport. They put it toward what they think has the best chance for success. It’s an age-old story of funding and politics.”
Steamboat’s Johnny Spillane, co-owner of Steamboat Flyfisher and a three-time silver medalist from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, feels the funding announcement could spell an opportunity. “The situation we were in wasn’t ideal; we weren’t getting the funding we needed,” he says. “With change, it forces everyone to rethink how we’re doing things. The ultimate outcome could be better; we’re more in control of our own destiny. Until now, we’ve been at the mercy of whatever USA Nordic wanted to do with the funding. This gives us an opportunity to see how we can do better.”
It’s a cart-before-the-horse scenario, he adds. Success breeds success; you need results to get funding, but you need funding to get results. “If you don’t get results people won’t be happy,” he says. “Luckily, we had results with World Cup and Olympic medals, and were fortunate that the Olympics were in Salt Lake in 2002, resulting in a huge push in funding from the USOC. With the Olympics coming back to Salt Lake, maybe funding will pick up again.”
Hopefully, the partnership with Norway will be able toc ontinue. In two years, it has led to a slurry of personal bests for U.S. Nordic combined athletes. Among them: For the women last year, local Annika Malacinski was the top U.S. World Cup finisher at 14th, and Alexa Brabec earned Nordic Combined Athlete of the Year, taking 21st overall; for the men, Steamboat’s Niklas Malacinski and Grant Andrews finished 14th and 32nd, respectively.
And the women have more on the line: They’re hoping for the sport’s first Olympic inclusion in France’s 2030 Games. (Nordic combined is the last Winter Olympic sport without a women’s counterpart.) Potential cavalry could come riding in from locally formed nonprofit Nordic Combined USA (NordicCombinedUSA.org) as a fundraising platform. Its goal: raising $500,000 by year’s end and rekindling the partnership with Norway. It’s also trying to build awareness and foster participation to better its Olympic chances.
“Our goal is threefold,” says board chair Jill Brabec, mother of Alexa. “We want to raise money to keep the team going; develop a pipeline for young athletes; and create awareness to help influence the IOC’s decision.” As of September, they’ve raised $170,000, including a $50,000 donation from a local private donor. “To me, that means everything,” Jill adds. “The athletes are feeling the support from the community, which is great.”
But the discipline needs support on a larger level as well. "These things happen and are evidence of a bigger issue in sport,” says SSWSC Nordic director Todd Wilson, whose sport is still growing at the club and FIS level. “Sports fade in and out, and it’s going on in a lot of these fringe sports. The Olympics has more sports than it knows what to do with and U.S. Ski and Snowboard has more mouths than it can feed. Every new sport means the pie just gets cut into more pieces. They want each sport to be self-funded.”
While Todd considers Nordic combined a legacy sport that’s been around since the beginning, he says it has been under the microscope for a while. “But it’s also a great opportunity to start from scratch, like we’ve done before,” he says. Ben is quick on his free heels to agree. “It’s not the end of the sport – there’s a group of parents and alumni leading the fundraisingc harge. But now’s the time for people to rally.”
Like its high-flying followers, funding for the Olympic discipline of Nordic combined – long a cornerstone of Steamboat Springs’ Olympic heritage – is, well, up in the air. Last June, USA Nordic Sport announced that it would no longer fund the national team program nor its two-year-old partnership with the Norwegian National Team, which gained U.S. athletes access to Norway’s training facilities, camps, coaches and wax technicians.
“It’s a big blow for local Nordic combined athletes,” says Steamboat Nordic combined Olympian Ben Berend, who competed in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. "If I’m a parent, maybe I’m now not wanting my kid to be in that program because it’s all going to be out-of-pocket. People go into programs that have opportunity and momentum.”
Another blow: its future as an Olympic discipline. While Steamboat’s Nordic heritage dates back to 1914 when Norwegian Carl Howelsen introduced the sport to town, after the upcoming 2026 Italy games, Nordic combined could get the axe. The International Olympic Committee is watching the sport closely, with plans to decide on its inclusion in fall 2025.
"Nordic combined has two major things going against it – lack of funding and the possibility of it not being in the Olympics,” Ben adds. “But this is how sports go; it’s a cycle, and there are ups and downs. There’s no rule that says they need to give it to every sport. They put it toward what they think has the best chance for success. It’s an age-old story of funding and politics.”
Olympian Ben Berend competes as a member of the U.S. Nordic combined team. Photo courtesy of Ben Berend.
Steamboat’s Johnny Spillane, co-owner of Steamboat Flyfisher and a three-time silver medalist from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, feels the funding announcement could spell an opportunity. “The situation we were in wasn’t ideal; we weren’t getting the funding we needed,” he says. “With change, it forces everyone to rethink how we’re doing things. The ultimate outcome could be better; we’re more in control of our own destiny. Until now, we’ve been at the mercy of whatever USA Nordic wanted to do with the funding. This gives us an opportunity to see how we can do better.”
It’s a cart-before-the-horse scenario, he adds. Success breeds success; you need results to get funding, but you need funding to get results. “If you don’t get results people won’t be happy,” he says. “Luckily, we had results with World Cup and Olympic medals, and were fortunate that the Olympics were in Salt Lake in 2002, resulting in a huge push in funding from the USOC. With the Olympics coming back to Salt Lake, maybe funding will pick up again.”
Hopefully, the partnership with Norway will be able toc ontinue. In two years, it has led to a slurry of personal bests for U.S. Nordic combined athletes. Among them: For the women last year, local Annika Malacinski was the top U.S. World Cup finisher at 14th, and Alexa Brabec earned Nordic Combined Athlete of the Year, taking 21st overall; for the men, Steamboat’s Niklas Malacinski and Grant Andrews finished 14th and 32nd, respectively.
And the women have more on the line: They’re hoping for the sport’s first Olympic inclusion in France’s 2030 Games. (Nordic combined is the last Winter Olympic sport without a women’s counterpart.) Potential cavalry could come riding in from locally formed nonprofit Nordic Combined USA (NordicCombinedUSA.org) as a fundraising platform. Its goal: raising $500,000 by year’s end and rekindling the partnership with Norway. It’s also trying to build awareness and foster participation to better its Olympic chances.
“Our goal is threefold,” says board chair Jill Brabec, mother of Alexa. “We want to raise money to keep the team going; develop a pipeline for young athletes; and create awareness to help influence the IOC’s decision.” As of September, they’ve raised $170,000, including a $50,000 donation from a local private donor. “To me, that means everything,” Jill adds. “The athletes are feeling the support from the community, which is great.”
But the discipline needs support on a larger level as well. "These things happen and are evidence of a bigger issue in sport,” says SSWSC Nordic director Todd Wilson, whose sport is still growing at the club and FIS level. “Sports fade in and out, and it’s going on in a lot of these fringe sports. The Olympics has more sports than it knows what to do with and U.S. Ski and Snowboard has more mouths than it can feed. Every new sport means the pie just gets cut into more pieces. They want each sport to be self-funded.”
While Todd considers Nordic combined a legacy sport that’s been around since the beginning, he says it has been under the microscope for a while. “But it’s also a great opportunity to start from scratch, like we’ve done before,” he says. Ben is quick on his free heels to agree. “It’s not the end of the sport – there’s a group of parents and alumni leading the fundraisingc harge. But now’s the time for people to rally.”