From the day they were born, Annika and Niklas Malacinski seemed destined to be elite athletes.

Annika, age 24, and Niklas, 21, grew up in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The small ski town boasts a population of less than 14,000 people, yet it has gained quite the reputation in the Olympic winter sports world. Steamboat Springs has produced more winter Olympians than any other town in the United States — 100 and counting. 

“It’s paradise,” Annika said of her hometown. “As a kid, you’re exposed to so many different sports, especially winter sports. Both Niklas and I grew up being able to ski by the time we could walk.” 

Having athletic parents to look up to certainly helped their case. Annika and Niklas’ father was a ski instructor, while their mother was a former elite swimmer who nearly qualified for an Olympic Games. The siblings embraced every moment of their athletic upbringing, trying every sport possible and developing a bond over a shared passion for being outside and competing. 

While they were exposed to many of the same sports early on, different ones stuck for each sibling. For Niklas, it was Nordic combined. His dreams began to take shape nearly 15 years ago, when Team USA Olympic medalists Todd Lodwick, Johnny Spillane and Billy Demong returned to Steamboat Springs to show their medals to the local community. It marked a pivotal moment for Nordic combined in the United States — American athletes never had won an Olympic medal in the sport prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics. It also marked a pivotal moment in the life of seven-year-old Niklas. 

“I got to hold their medals,” Niklas recalled. “I think at that moment I was like, ‘Oh, I want to do high-level sports.’ And then growing up in a ski town, I think that’s what kind of got me into Nordic combined. I was just driving past the ski jumps on the way home from hockey practice, because I did every sport imaginable when I was younger. And I just said, ‘Dad, I want to try that.’ And then I got to try it and kind of fell in love with it that way.” 

For Annika, the sport that stuck early on was gymnastics. She dedicated herself to intense training at age 12 and had her sights set on one day qualifying for the Olympics. But by age 16, her body no longer could handle the demands of the long hours in the gym. After facing several injuries, Annika decided to step away, unsure of where to go next. 

I went through this phase of just not knowing at all what I wanted to do and what I wanted to pursue. I always knew that I was destined for more, especially pushing myself, specifically in sport.

The answer came to Annika while she was watching the person she had shared so many of her childhood athletic experiences with excel at his craft. On the Fourth of July in 2017, Annika attended the annual Jumpin' and Jammin' Ski Jumping Extravaganza in Steamboat Springs. A local tradition since 2005, the competition brings together some of the nation's top ski jumping and Nordic combined athletes for the only summer ski jumping event held in the state of Colorado. It was at this event that Niklas' potential in Nordic sports became clear — not only to his sister, but to the entire community of successful winter athletes.

"The whole town comes out and watches," Annika said. "He was 14 at the time, and he almost beat 20-plus-year-olds in the ski jumping event." 

Though two and a half years older than Niklas, Annika was inspired by her brother’s dedication, passion, and ultimately, his success. She left the event with motivation and a spark of curiosity about Nordic combined. Just a few short days later, she decided to take the leap — literally — and jumped off a 40-meter ski jump. Though she described it as one of the scariest moments of her life even to this day, the experience ignited a burning desire to compete and push her body to its limits. 

“The adrenaline rush I got after that was just so crazy that I was like, ‘OK. This is actually something that I want to do,’” she said. 

From that point on, the siblings thrived. 

Both joined the U.S. National Team in 2018. Niklas qualified for the 2021 and 2023 U.S. World Championships Teams, and he earned his first U.S. National Championships win in 2024. He then began the 2024-25 season with a personal-best 13th-place finish at the World Cup in Ruka, Finland, and finished the season ranked No. 26 in the world. 

Annika began to make her mark in the historically male-dominated sport, most notably by serving as a trailblazer in international competition. During the 2020-21 season, she competed in the inaugural Women’s Nordic Combined World Cup and World Cup Championships. She then went on to win her first title at the U.S. National Championships in 2023, and she has qualified for two world championships teams. After securing 10, top-20 finishes during the 2024-25 World Cup season, Annika finished the year ranked No. 15 in the world. 

While the siblings have accumulated numerous individual accolades in the sport, reaching this level of success has not come without its challenges. Nordic combined requires athletes to strike a unique balance in training as they work to master two entirely different disciplines: ski jumping and cross-country skiing. While one discipline requires an athlete to be light and powerful, the other requires exceptional endurance; it is often believed when an athlete improves in one discipline, they decline in the other. Annika, who noted that she and her brother “understand some of those difficulties and struggles that we have to go through and the training that we have to do,” spoke about the importance of having Niklas nearby when navigating the highs and lows of a sport that often can be misunderstood. 

“It’s nice to have your sibling there if you’re feeling low about results, just want to get things off your chest or need to talk about things that you wouldn’t talk about with your teammates,” she said. “I think that’s really nice to have, especially when you’re in high-pressure situations like World Cup weekends.” 

The siblings don’t just help each other through difficult times as they share an understanding of what it takes to be elite, though. They share positive experiences, too — traveling all over the world together to participate in international competition and hopping into portions of one another’s training sessions, just to name a few. Though Niklas laughed about the “occasional bickering” the siblings sometimes engage in when traveling around the world for competition, the significance of sharing the experience is not lost on either of them.

It’s like having home with you when you’re traveling. A piece of it, at least. That gives every place that we’re together a little bit more of a sense like we’re home.

Carrying this piece of home with them only has encouraged each sibling to continue pursuing their dreams in the sport. As for their future goals, Niklas has his eyes set on the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. And while the current Olympic program does not include Nordic combined for women, Annika continues to train hard and be a spokesperson in hopes that she and her teammates eventually will be able to compete at the Olympic level. In the meantime, she finds immense joy in competing on the international stage, and most importantly, finds fulfillment through the community she has built through the sport. 

“I don’t think that should be a reason that you do what you do,” Annika said of having the opportunity to compete at the Olympic level. “I think you have to love what you do as a sport. It’s one of my biggest passions to just be outside and train. And how fortunate I am to do this as my job. I get to see the world and I get to meet amazing people, while also pushing myself to do hard things in life. And the community that I get to train with and compete with, those girls are really special people in my life.” 

Part of that community also includes her brother, Niklas, who expressed admiration for his sister and the work she has done to forge her own path in the sport. 

"I really respect the way Annika is able to market and create opportunities for herself," he said. "The biggest thing I've learned in the past two years is just [the importance of] making your own way and clearing your own path." 

While Annika successfully has done so on the marketing side of the sport, she also has done so athletically — and her results speak for themselves. The list of impressive achievements, though, may never have been possible without the inspiration she drew from watching her brother compete in the sport they both now love. 

“Seeing Niklas commit super heavily to Nordic combined at the age of 15 and then starting to travel and be away from home, I think that was really inspiring for me to see,” Annika said. “I probably see him as one of the hardest working people that I’ve met. So, in that sense, I feel like it’s taught me when you’re fully committed to something, to go fully at it. To push through barriers, even if you’re tired, and just get it done.” 

Just as they have since they were kids that could ski by the time they could walk, the siblings will continue to push through barriers and forge their paths together.