A foggy future has become slightly more clear for American Nordic Combined athletes who may have just been handed the keys to capture success and save the sport. 

Nordic Combined USA announced Wednesday it has been awarded a development grant from the International Ski and Snowboard Federation to support a new partnership with Team Norway for the upcoming winter season.

In August 2022, USA Nordic Sport — now USA Ski Jumping — announced its historic partnership with Norway, allowing for access to training camps at world-class facilities in both nations and the ability to train under coaches from both nations, including access to Norwegian wax technicians. 

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After two years in the collaboration, the new philosophy and the improvements with equipment led to a great deal of American Nordic Combined success on the World Cup circuit, including personal-best finishes. 

Steamboat’s Annika Malacinski and Alexa Brabec finished the 2023-24 season ranked 14th and 21st, respectively, in the overall World Cup standings. Brabec even earned the title of Nordic Combined Athlete of the Year and became the first American woman to earn a Nordic combined medal at the Junior World Championships where she earned two silvers in Planica, Slovenia, earlier this year. 

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Niklas Malacinski and Grant Andrews — also athletes from Steamboat Springs — closed this season with personal bests by finishing 14th and 32nd, respectively. Niklas, along with Ben Loomis and Stephen Schumann, all landed in the top 30 overall for the men’s Nordic combined World Cup standings — a feat that has not occurred for the United States in a decade. 

Despite the promising results, USA Ski Jumping — then USA Nordic Sport — announced that the organization would no longer fund the Nordic combined national team program or its partnership with the Norwegian National Team. This left athletes scrambling to find funding on their own. 

To make matters worse for Nordic athletes, the International Olympic Committee announced in 2022 it would not include women’s Nordic combined in the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympic Games. The IOC later doubled down this spring by announcing the future of the men’s competition would remain in question looking ahead to the 2030 Games.

The IOC’s reasoning for the exclusion is due to a lack of high-performing countries across the developmental and World Cup levels. The organization is also concerned with television viewership and the sport’s popularity across the globe. 

The pile up of bad news for Nordic athletes led to the gathering of volunteers nationwide who assembled in June to form the nonprofit now known as Nordic Combined USA, to take over leadership and fundraise for the sport. 

“We’ve come a long way in just four months of operation,” said Taylor Fletcher, a retired Nordic athlete who currently serves on the NCUSA board. “We still have a way to go to cover expenses for these athletes and the sport, but we are excited and can’t wait for the upcoming winter season.” 

Having the Norwegian partnership back for another season means the world to Niklas Malacinski who felt he was really getting comfortable with the new methodology. His results last season were reflective of those feelings. 

“It’s a huge relief to be able to fully focus before the season without the additional stress,” Niklas said. “I’m extremely grateful for everyone who helped us get here and especially to those who pushed to get the grant.” 

Niklas and the rest of the U.S. Men’s Nordic Combined Team will compete in the opening World Cup on Nov. 28-Dec. 1 in Ruka, Finland. Both the men’s and women’s teams will later compete in Lillehammer, Norway from Dec. 5-8. 

2024 marks the 100-year anniversary of the first Winter Olympic Games, which took place in Chamonix, France. Nordic combined was one of the original nine disciplines that athletes competed in during those Games.

A century later, Steamboat Springs has become famous for producing more Olympic athletes than any other town in the country and a large sum of those athletes were Nordic skiers. 

The town has long been a stronghold for the sport beginning with Carl Howelsen, who shared his passion for Nordic skiing with the introduction of the Winter Carnival in February 1914.