Nordic combined is back once again for the Olympics, and much has happened since the competition in Beijing. Still, Nordic combined remains the only Olympic sport— summer or winter — in which only men can compete.

The Nordic combined competition in Milan Cortina will look different in two ways.

Most notably, the number of athletes has been reduced by almost one-third. While 55 athletes competed in Beijing, only 36 will make up the pool in 2026.

On that note, the team event in Milan Cortina will see groups of two competing rather than four. Additionally, instead of completing a 5km-long leg of the relay, each skier will race 7.5km (approximately 4.66 miles).

The four Nordic combined giants — Norway, Germany, Austria and Finland — have continued to dominate the sport in the years since Beijing. The quartet secured all of the top-nine spots on the 2024-25 World Cup rankings and the top-four spots in the 2024-25 Nations Cup. Germany came first, Austria finished second, and Norway and Finland placed third and fourth, respectively.

Norway’s success continued thanks in no small part to legend Jarl Magnus Riiber. Riiber, the most decorated Nordic combined athlete of all time, collected his fifth overall World Cup title following the 2023-24 circuit (tying German Eric Frenzel’s record) and three gold medals in front of a home crowd at the 2025 Nordic World Ski Championships in Trondheim, as well as a second-place finish on the World Cup during his farewell season in 2024-25. Teammate Jens Luras Oftebro placed sixth.

Vinzenz Geiger and Julian Schmid have risen to the top of the Nordic combined ranks for Germany. Two-time Olympic gold medalist Geiger earned his first World Cup overall title in the 2024-25 campaign, and Schmid earned a personal-best third-place finish in 2022-23. As a team, Germany’s men climbed to the top of the podium at the 2025 World Championships.

Since just missing the podium in two events in Beijing, Austria’s Johannes Lamparter has found his way into the top three in multiple competitions. The now-23-year-old claimed his first overall World Cup title in the 2022-23 season and finished third in his last two campaigns. In Trondheim, he helped Austria to a silver medal in the men’s team large hill event and a bronze in the mixed team event.

The only individual medalist from the Beijing Olympics who has retired in the years since is Norway’s Jorgen Graabak. The four-time Olympic champion and three-time world champion announced his retirement in May, just months after fellow Norwegian Jarl Magnus Riiber, the most decorated Nordic combined athlete of all time, announced his own. 

Germany's Vinzenz Geiger, Austria's Lukas Greiderer, Norway's Jens Luras Oftebro and Japan's Akito Watabe all are eligible to return to the Olympic stage in 2026.

Below is the medal table from Beijing:

With the retirement of Norwegian stars Jarl Magnus Riiber and Jorgen Graabak, the Milan Cortina Olympics undoubtedly will see some new champions. 

Germany, however, has a chance to extend its dominant streak in two events: the individual normal hill and the team event, though the latter looks a little different than it has in recent years. The country has won four of the last five Olympic titles in the individual normal hill, the most recent victor being Vinzenz Geiger, who is expected to return to the Olympic stage in 2026. He and Julian Schmid were part of the quartets which took gold and silver in the team events in PyeongChang and Beijing, respectively. However, given that the team event now features a sprint relay completed by two competitors instead of a longer race with four legs, a new squad may prevail.