Winter Olympics adds synchro skating and freeride for 2030 in French Alps. Nordic combined dropped

GENEVA (AP) — Bienvenue to the Winter Olympics, synchronized figure skating and freeride skiing.

Au revoir, Nordic combined.

The International Olympic Committee on Tuesday dropped Nordic combined — one of the original Winter Olympic sports — from the program to the 2030 Games in the French Alps and added two new disciplines. It also gave a reprieve to snowboard parallel giant slalom by keeping it on the program.

The changes should mean there are more female than male athletes at the next Winter Games.

The IOC set a record quota of 3,046 athletes, with 1,525 female and 1,521 male, for the next winter edition. There was a clear majority of male athletes among the almost 2,900 competing at the Milan Cortina Olympics in February.

In the French Alps there will be more medal events for women than men — 56 compared to 55 — plus 15 mixed events in the 126 total.

The Nordic combined had been all-male sport at the Olympics, but the IOC had the option of adding women’s and team events. Instead, it cut completely a sport that was an original Winter Games sport in 1924 yet struggled to find a modern audience for its mix of ski jumping and cross-country skiing.

102-year Olympic history stops

Nordic combined was the only Winter Olympic sport that excluded a gender, giving men an opportunity to go for gold while women were relegated to watching.

The IOC executive board previously lamented that the sport did not have strong international representation outside Europe.

The governing body studies the popularity of disciplines in 14 ways, including broadcast coverage, digital media and ticket sales. The IOC said Nordic combined ranked last in 11 of 14 indicators during the Milan Cortina Winter Games this year.

Lasse Ottesen, the Nordic combined race director at the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, said the IOC decision was extremely disappointing.

“I am at a loss for words and struggle to understand the reasoning behind it,” Ottesen said. “Nordic combined has been at the heart of Nordic skiing and part of the Olympic Winter Games since 1924.”

Door still open for Utah 2034

“We know and can fully understand that this may come as a disappointment,” IOC president Kirsty Coventry said Tuesday in a message to Nordic combined athletes.

She also said the discipline can return at the 2034 Utah Winter Games centered on Salt Lake City.

“It is a shock that will take time to process,” said Norway’s Ida Marie Hagen, a two-time overall women’s World Cup champion. “It feels really hard that we never even got the chance to show our sport in the Olympics before we were cut out. I love this sport and we will fight all we can so that the next generation will get the change in this sport as well. Hopefully in 2034.”

Debut events

Synchronized skating is widely seen as a discipline for only women, and will join the Olympics in the nine-member Synchro9 format in 2030.

Synchro will be female only when it debuts at the 2028 Youth Winter Olympics in Italy, with a future decision left open to let men also compete in the French Alps.

Freeride takes skiers and snowboarders off traditional slopes to do jumps and turns on more natural terrain. The sport began its competitive history in 1996 as the Xtreme Verbier event in Switzerland.

Snowboard PGS helped make an Olympic star of Czech two-time gold medalist Ester Ledecka and is retained for 2030, the IOC said. The discipline had been at risk after its racing style fell out of favor compared to events with jumps and tricks.

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AP Sports Writer Larry Lage in Detroit contributed to this report

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Graham Dunbar, The Associated Press