Nordic combined at the Olympic Games

František Wende jumping in the Nordic Combined as part of the first event at the 1924 Olympic Games in Chamonix

Magnus Moan and Felix Gottwald in the 10 km race after jumping from the normal hill at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver

The Nordic combined is since the Olympic Winter Games 1924 in Chamonix in the program of the Olympic Winter Games . A list of the Olympic champions in Nordic combined can be found at: List of Olympic champions in Nordic combined .

Disciplines

At first only the individual competition was Olympic. In contrast to today's Individual Gundersen, an 18 km cross-country ski run was first held and then jumped. The points achieved from both sports were added together and the athlete with the highest number of points won. At the Olympic Winter Games of 1952 , the order of the disciplines was finally reversed and the length of the running route was shortened to 15 km four years later. However, the conversion of the running time into points was maintained until the introduction of the Gundersen method at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Since then, the winner has been determined in a pursuit race, in which the athletes start with the time intervals calculated on the basis of the jump results. Another innovation was the use of the skating technique in cross-country skiing. At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, a third competition, the sprint (7.5 km), was added. With the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver , sprint and individual races were replaced by two competitions that only differ in terms of jumps from different hill sizes. The length of the running route was 10 km in both disciplines. The number of jumps has been reduced from two to one.

A team competition has also been held since the 1988 Winter Olympics. Initially, the relay consisted of three athletes, and since the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano in 1998 it has consisted of four combined athletes who each complete two jumps and then a 4 × 5 km relay.

The three Olympic disciplines are only held by men. An inclusion of the Nordic combined for women in the Olympic program is not planned in the foreseeable future given its minor importance.

Disciplines	20th century																		21st century
	24	28	32	36	48	52	56	60	64	68	72	76	80	84	88	92	94	98	02	06	10	14th	18th	total
singles	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•				20th
team															•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	9
sprint																			•	•				2
Gundersen normal hill																					•	•	•	3
Gundersen large hill																					•	•	•	3
total	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	3	3	3	3	3	37

statistics

At the beginning the international competitions in Nordic Combined were dominated by the Norwegians at will. In the first four Olympic Games, all medals were won by Norwegian combiners. Johan Grøttumsbråten even managed to successfully defend his title at the 1932 Winter Olympics . The dominance of the Norwegians was finally broken in the early 1960s. With Georg Thoma’s Olympic victory at the 1960 Games, the German combined athletes were also able to celebrate great successes at the following Games. The achievements of Ulrich Wehling , who became Olympic champion three times in a row in 1972, 1976 and 1980, are unique to date . This triple success has remained unmatched to this day. At the games of 1992 the French Fabrice Guy and Sylvain Guillaume achieved an unexpected double victory in front of a home crowd. For Fabrice Guy, however, this would remain the only major success. After two Norwegian victories by Fred Børre Lundberg and Bjarte Engen Vik , the 2002 Olympic Games were finally ruled by one man: Samppa Lajunen . In addition to winning the individual race and with the team, the Finn also won the Olympic title in the newly introduced sprint. With a total of three gold and two silver medals, he is the most successful combined athlete at the Olympic Games, ahead of the Austrian Felix Gottwald and the East German Ulrich Wehling, who were practically denied further successes due to the team and sprint competitions that were not held at the time. At the 2006 Olympic Games, Georg Hettich won the individual race for the first German individual gold medal in 26 years.

In the team competition that has been held since 1988, Austria is the most successful nation with two gold and three bronze medals ahead of Japan , which has so far won two gold medals. The nations Germany , Norway and Finland each achieved an Olympic victory in the team competition.

Eternal medal table

→ Main article : List of Olympic champions in Nordic combined

rank	country				Total
1	Norway	13	10	8th	31
2	Germany (of which GDR ) (of which BR Germany ) (of which all-German team )	11 (3) (2) (1)	6 (0) (1) (0)	9 (4) (0) (1)	26 (7) (3) (2)
3	Finland	4th	8th	2	14th
4th	Austria	3	2	10	15th
5	Japan	2	3	0	5
6th	France	2	1	1	4th
7th	United States	1	3	0	4th
8th	Switzerland	1	2	1	4th
9	Russian Federation (of which Soviet Union )	0 (0)	1 (1)	3 (2)	4 (3)
10	Sweden	0	1	1	2
11	Italy	0	0	1	1
	Poland	0	0	1	1

Web links

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