A unique sport that combines ski jumping and cross-country skiing, Nordic combined was one of six disciplines contested at the inaugural 1924 Chamonix Winter Olympics.

Nordic combined contests first were held at carnivals in Norway in the mid-1800s, before ski jumping and cross-country skiing were contested as separate events. The sport’s first major competition was held at the Holmenkollen Ski Festival in Oslo in 1892.

For the first 14 Winter Olympics, only the individual normal hill event was contested. During that time, the cross-country race ranged from 15km to 18km (approximately 9.3 miles to 11.2 miles), and some Games allowed athletes to make two or three scored jumps. 

The Olympic program finally expanded in 1988 with the team event (that year also saw the addition of the Gundersen scoring method). Though the team event has existed in many different forms on the Olympic level, initially it required three-person teams to race a relay of 3x10km. Ten years later, the format shifted to teams of four racing a 4x5km relay — the format which was used in Beijing in 2022. In 2026, pairs of athletes will compete in a 2x7.5km relay. 

The International Olympic Committee then added a second individual event in 2002, which was dubbed the individual sprint; after athletes made one jump on a large hill, they then competed in a 7.5km race (approximately 4.66 miles). The event only lasted in that format for two Games before both individual events were converted to the 10km-long race setup used today.

Unsurprisingly, Norway has commanded Olympic competition historically, earning 35 total medals (15 gold) — almost twice as much as Germany’s runner-up total of 18. Norwegian athletes swept the competition for the first four contests, and the country only has missed the podium altogether in eight of 24 Games. 

Germany has been especially powerful in recent years, claiming gold in the individual normal hill/10km at four of the last five Games and finding the podium in the team event in every Olympic competition since 2002.

Austria and Finland are close behind Germany with 16 and 14 total medals, respectively. 

Athletes representing European nations have won 109 of 120 (or 90.8%) of all Nordic combined medals awarded. The only non-European nations to have won medals are Japan, with seven, and the United States, with four. The United States earned all of its medals (1 gold, 3 silver) in 2010.

Two athletes share the title for the most decorated Nordic combined Olympian with seven total medals: Germany’s Eric Frenzel and Austria’s Felix Gottwald. They also each topped the podium three times. Norway’s Jorgen Graabak, who retired from the sport in May 2025, collected six Olympic prizes in his career, though his four golds are the most of any Nordic combined athlete.  

After 86 years without a medal, the United States finally broke through at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, claiming four of the nine medals awarded. After snagging two silvers in the individual normal hill and the team event, the country capped an already-historic performance with its first Olympic gold, won by Bill Demong in the individual large hill event. Johnny Spillane, Demong’s teammate who reached the podium in the individual normal hill, collected another silver prize behind Demong. Later that night, Demong (successfully) proposed to his girlfriend.

The United States has not won an Olympic Nordic combined medal since then.

Once again, Norway far outperformed its competition in Nordic combined, collecting four of nine medals awarded. Jorgen Graabak, who claimed a medal in each of the three events in Beijing, became the first-ever athlete to win a gold medal in the individual large hill/10km event twice. Teammate Jens Luras Oftebro took silver in the same event. 

For the third-straight year, the team event came down to a battle between rivals Norway and Germany. They traded silvers and golds in the previous two Games, but Norway reclaimed its title from Sochi in Beijing, beating Germany by almost a full minute.

PyeongChang 2018 

After earning only one Nordic combined gold medal in Sochi, the Germans completed the hat trick in PyeongChang to win gold in all three Nordic combined events. Johannes Rydzek took gold in the individual large hill/10km, Eric Frenzel won the normal hill/10km title and the quartet of Frenzel, Rydzek, Vinzenz Geiger and Fabian Riessle earned gold in the team large hill/4x5km event. For good measure, the Germans also won silver and bronze in the individual large hill/10km event. Germany was flat out dominant in PyeongChang, handily leading the medal count with five total medals.

Frenzel's performance made him only the third Nordic combined Olympian, after Norway's Johan Grottumsbraten and East Germany's Ulrich Wehling, to win the individual normal hill twice.

Sochi 2014 

Despite the United States' huge success in Vancouver, that dominance didn't follow the Americans to Sochi. American Nordic combined athletes left Sochi without any medals while Norway reestablished itself as one of the sport's powerhouses. Norway's Joergen Graabak won a pair of medals — one in the individual large hill/10km event and another in the team large hill/4x5km event. Overall, the Norwegians took home four medals in Nordic combined competition. Magnus Moan and Magnus Krog earned a silver and bronze medal, respectively.

Vancouver 2010 

Prior to 2010, American athletes never had won an Olympic medal in Nordic combined, a drought that lasted 86 years and spanned 20 Winter Games. But that streak ended in Vancouver when the U.S. collected its first-ever Olympic medal in the sport — and then three more. It all began with Johnny Spillane’s silver in the normal hill event. Nine days later, the U.S. entered the record books again when it earned silver behind Austria in the team event. In the ski jumping portion, the U.S. posted one of the highest scores, 505.8, finishing second behind Finland by 1.2 points. In the cross-country race, the chase pack quickly caught the U.S. and Finland by the end of the first leg. Finland fell well off the pace in the second leg, while Austria and the U.S. separated themselves from the group around the halfway point. With a time of 48:55.6, 5.2 seconds ahead of the Americans, Austria claimed its second consecutive Olympic gold medal.

In the third and final Nordic combined event of the Vancouver Games, Bill Demong and Johnny Spillane capped an incredible Olympics by going 1-2 in the individual large hill event. In the cross-country skiing portion of the competition, Demong entered the stadium with a considerable lead over his teammate and coasted the final few meters to become the first American to win gold in Nordic combined. “To hear the national anthem play, and to be able to turn and see your best friend that you’ve been down this journey with for half of a lifetime is kind of indescribable really,” Demong later said. 

Demong’s gold medal was just the start to a memorable day. A few hours later, the 29-year-old Vermontville, New York, native learned that he was chosen as the U.S. flagbearer for the Closing Ceremony. Then, to cap it all off at his victory ceremony that night, he proposed (successfully) to his then-girlfriend Katie.

Torino 2006 

Nordic combined principally was dominated by three men at the 2006 Torino Games: Austra’s Felix Gottwald, Germany’s Georg Hettich and Norway’s Magnus Moan. All three men reached the podium in both individual events, while Moan was the only one not to reach the podium in the team event. Gottwald won the sprint, capturing his first individual gold medal, and added another medal with his silver in the individual. 

Prior to Vancouver, Hettich never had won an individual World Cup event, but in Torino he earned gold in the individual and bronze in the sprint. After Norway was shut out of the medals in 2002, Moan collected silver in the sprint and bronze in the individual. In the team event, Austria improved upon its bronze from Salt Lake by winning the event, while Germany took silver for the second straight Games. Finland won its third consecutive medal, claiming bronze, as 17-year-old Anssi Koivuranta became the youngest Nordic combined medalist in Olympic history.

Salt Lake 2002 

A second individual event, then known as the sprint, was introduced at the Salt Lake Games. The U.S. had its best performance at the time, when Todd Lodwick finished fifth in the sprint event and the Americans were fourth in the team event. Finland’s Samppa Lajunen won both individual events and powered the Finns to the top of the podium in the team event for the golden sweep.

Nagano 1998 

Starting at these Games, teams consisted of four athletes instead of three. The cross-country skiing relay was changed to a 4x5km race, and each team member only made two scored jumps. Norway won the team event for the first time, and Bjarte Engen Vik became the first athlete to win both the individual and team competitions at the same Games. Eighteen-year-old Samppa Lajunen of Finland won a pair of silver medals.

Lillehammer 1994 

Japan’s Kenji Ogiwara, the overwhelming favorite in the individual competition entering the Games, had an uncharacteristically poor jumping performance (sixth-best among competitors) and ultimately finished out of the medals in fourth. Norway’s Fred Borre Lundberg thrilled the Nordic-crazed home fans with his unexpected victory; fans sang the Norwegian national anthem as skied his final lap.

Ogiwara got a small measure of revenge a few days later in the team competition. Japan built an insurmountable lead after a superior jumping performance and coasted to a second consecutive team gold medal. Norway, led by Lundberg and individual bronze medalist Bjarte Engen Vik, won silver. In what was the U.S.’s best-ever result in Olympic Nordic combined at the time, Dave Jarrett, Todd Lodwick and Ryan Heckman finished seventh in the team competition.

Albertville 1992 

France had never before won an Olympic medal in Nordic combined, an obscure sport in that country. But in front of a thrilled home crowd, Fabrice Guy, who had been enjoying a breakthrough season in 1991-92, won easily. His supporters were so thrilled with the Frenchman’s victory that they gathered outside the doping control room and sang “La Marseillaise” while Guy tried to produce a urine sample. 

Surprisingly, Guy’s teammate Sylvain Guillaume improved from 13th in the jumping to win silver. Klaus Sulzenbacher, the 1988 silver medalist, earned bronze. In the team event, the Japanese athletes jumped extremely well en route to winning Japan’s first Olympic Nordic combined medal, a gold. Norway claimed silver with the fastest skiing performance. Austria earned bronze, giving Sulzenbacher his fourth career medal (and third bronze).

Calgary 1988

For the first time in Olympic competition, the start of the cross-country skiing race was ordered and timed according to the result of the ski jumping. In the new system, known as the “Gundersen Method,” the leader after the ski jumping would be the first to start skiing. The subsequent competitors would start according to how their ski jumping performance compared with the leader’s. Under this system, the first athlete to cross the finish line is the winner of the gold medal. Switzerland’s Hippolyt Kempf started the cross-country race in third place, 70 seconds behind the leader, but ended up winning the gold medal by 19 seconds.

A second Nordic combined event, the team competition, was added that year as well. West Germany won the inaugural team competition. Kempf, who added team silver to his individual gold, and Austria’s Klaus Sulzenbacher, who won silver in individual and bronze in team, became the first Nordic combined athletes to win two medals at one Games. The Swiss team, sixth after the jumping competition, started the relay four minutes and 52 seconds after the leaders and finished only three-and-a-half seconds behind the gold medal-winning Germans.

Sarajevo 1984 

Norway’s Tom Sandberg won the gold, finishing ahead of a trio of Finns.

Lake Placid 1980 

East Germany's Ulrich Wehling — who, like in 1976, was the competition’s top jumper — became the first man to win three Olympic gold medals in Nordic combined.

Innsbruck 1976 

Ulrich Wehling became only the second person to win the individual normal hill event twice (Norway’s Johan Grottumsbraaten was the other, in 1928 and 1932).

Sapporo 1972 

At 19 years of age, Ulrich Wehling won the first of what would be three consecutive gold medals in Nordic combined. He remains the youngest Olympic gold medalist in the history of the sport. 

Grenoble 1968 

Germany's Franz Keller led after the jumping part of the event but finished only 13th in the skiing portion; even still, the performance was just enough for the gold medal.

Switzerland’s Alois Kalin, the eventual silver medalist, placed a dismal 24th in the jump, but still almost won the gold medal. His event-leading 15km time was almost three-and-a-half minutes faster than Keller’s; had he finished his cross-country race 2.3 seconds faster, he would have won the gold.

Innsbruck 1964 

Norway’s Tormod Knutsen, sixth in 1956 and the silver medalist from the 1960 Games, won gold. Germany's Georg Thoma, the defending champion, won the jumping portion of the competition but was only the 10th-fastest skier. He won the bronze.

Squaw Valley 1960

Georg Thoma, a postman from the Black Forest, became the first champion from a country other than Norway or Finland.

Cortina D’Ampezzo 1956

Sverre Stenersen became the sixth Norwegian champion in seven Winter Games. For the first time, the cross-country race was contested over distance of 15km.

Oslo 1952 

For the first time in Olympic competition, the jumping portion of the Nordic combined event was held before the cross-country skiing race. Simon Slattvik's victory marked the first time that an athlete from the host nation won the gold medal in Nordic combined. On February 18, the streets of Oslo were reportedly full of Norwegians celebrating the same-day victories of Slattvik, speed skater Hjalmar Andersen and cross-country skier Hallgeir Brenden. Then-34 years old, Slattvik is the oldest Olympic medalist (in an individual event) in the history of the sport.

St. Moritz 1948 

At the fifth Winter Games, a non-Norwegian athlete finally won a medal in the sport, ending the country's 24-year Olympic reign. In fact, Norway was shut out of the medals completely, as Finns Heikki Hasu and Martti Huhtala won gold and silver, respectively, and Sweden’s Sven Israelsson won bronze. The top Norwegian performer placed sixth. 

Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936 

Norway swept the medals for the fourth-straight time. By the conclusion of the 1936 Games, the 12 Nordic combined medals that had been awarded in Olympic history all belonged to Norwegians.

Lake Placid 1932 

Norwegian athletes swept the top four places, and Johan Grottumsbraten won his second consecutive Nordic combined gold. He finished his two-sport (Nordic combined and cross-country) career with six Olympic medals: three golds, one silver and two bronzes. He is one of only three men who have won the individual normal hill event more than once (East Germany’s Ulrich Wehling and Germany's Eric Frenzel are the others).

St. Moritz 1928

Chamonix 1924 

Norwegian skiers swept the top four places at the inaugural Olympic Nordic combined competition. Thorleif Haug, who had already won the 50km and the 15km events in cross-country skiing, captured his third gold medal of the Games when he placed first in the Nordic combined competition. The same trio that won the gold, silver and bronze in the 50km cross-country event also won gold, silver and bronze (in the same order) in the Nordic combined. 

Haug collected a fourth medal, a bronze, in the 1924 ski jumping competition. But 50 years later (and 40 years after Haug’s death) a computation error was discovered, and Haug was dropped to fourth place in the rankings. The medal was awarded to the United States' Anders Haugen.