US skier protests women’s exclusion from Olympic sport while cheering for brother at Milan Cortina
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TESERO, Italy (AP) — U.S. team skier Annika Malacinski attended the Nordic combined at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Tuesday to cheer for her younger brother.
And protest.
Annika came from her training base in Norway to watch brother Niklas finish 13th in his Olympic debut. It was bittersweet for Annika.
Nordic combined — ski jumping and cross-country in one — remains the only Winter Olympic sport that does not include women, even though women compete on the World Cup circuit and at world championships.
“It’s heartbreaking, it really is,” Annika told the Associated Press while wrapped in a long pink and white coat, before taking her seat in the stands.
“I want to come here with such a positive mindset, and I am a positive person,” she said, “but at the same time it is so unjust that I can ski jump and I can ski but because I’m a woman …”
At the race, Malacinski held up signs reading “No Exception” and “Make Olympics Gender Equal.”
“My brother is here fulfilling his dreams and I am not,” the Colorado native said. “It’s so bittersweet and I keep talking about that. It lights a fire in me because this is so unjust and in 2030 it’s not going to be like this.”
But there’s no guarantee Nordic combined, on the Olympic schedule for 102 years, will be at the 2030 Olympics in the French Alps. International Olympic Committee officials will decide later this year whether to keep Nordic combined as it doesn’t attract a large audience.
Malacinski has been a public face in the campaign for women’s inclusion and said she will continue to press for change.
“The IOC is going to let the women in, and they’re finally going to … decide the right thing, and hopefully I will be competing at the Olympics in four years,” she said. “Women deserve to be there.”
For Niklas Malacinski, younger than Annika by two years at 22, their shared Olympic dream has been delayed, not abandoned.
“We grew up very athletic and to see our childhood dreams of being on an Olympic podium together not be able to come true yet is sad,” he said. “But I am optimistic for 2030.
“I’ve been very impressed with … how much traction it’s getting online and how honestly (angry) people are about the current state of Nordic combined where women are still excluded.”
When Annika arrived at the race she was hugged by a young Italian fan, Asia Cigalotti, who has been following her campaign online.
“I was surprised because I didn’t know that Nordic combined, for females, was not included in the Olympic Games,” Cigalotti said. “(Annika) is a big support for her brother and I hope that in the future Nordic combined could also include women.”
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
