(Photo: FIS/ActionPress/Stephen Cloutier)
2. Why don't women get to compete in Nordic Combined in the Olympics?
Is the answer simply: Because of good old fashioned sexism?! 😳
With the Winter Games on the horizon, there is still just one sport in the Olympics that women don't get to compete in. And one sport in the Paralympics where the "co-ed" teams have only ever included three women in the history of the Games.
Nordic Combined
Originally the competition to name the best overall skier in the world — a combo of ski jumping & then a cross-country race with head starts based on your distance jumped — Nordic Combined has become less prominent globally. Yet, over the last ten years, the effort to grow the women's side of the sport has led to three World Championships, a World Cup series, and the belief that it would finally be included in this Olympics.
But, in 2022, the IOC voted no.
Will it be added for 2030? Or will the men's competition be eliminated?
Sled Hockey
Technically, sled hockey in the Paralympics is co-ed. BUT. (BUT!) There have only been three women who have ever competed. And there was even one woman who showed up to the 2006 Paralympics just to be told that...wait, it's men only?!
There is a U.S. women's national team now and there was the first-ever women's sled hockey world championship this past August. (The U.S. won 🇺🇸) And athletes are pushing for a women's event to now be added to the official Paralympic schedule.
Is it time? Yes.
3. The Enhanced Games appears to be going ahead...
...so that's unfortunate.
The Enhanced Games — labeling itself The Doping Olympics — has put out a trailer (even if the trailer appears to use "borrowed" footage), is selling tickets for the May 2026 competition in Vegas, and went public with a project $1.2 billion merger (that also seems to intend to sell performance-enhancing products).
The event, which is being billed as an Olympics-style competition where performance-enhancing drugs aren't just permitted but encouraged, has signed just one female athlete to date: Megan Romano, a swimmer who represented the U.S. in the 2012 and 2013 world championships 🏊♀️ 🏊♀️
An anti-trust lawsuit they filed against the World Anti-Doping Agency was also dismissed last week. And athletes who participate are being banned from regular competition. So, maybe the whole thing will still fall apart?!
🤔 READ: Two years ago we spoke with the founder of The Enhanced Games
🎧 LISTEN: How do whereabouts violations work in anti-doping anyway? We explain (and detail first-hand experience with the system) on this week's Feist podcast episode
The #1 women's sports city!
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