Events guide: Nordic combined

Venue: Pragelato Competition dates: 11, 15, 21 February Defending champions Indiv - Georg Hettich (Ger) Sprint - Samppa Lajunen (Fin) Team - Austria

The Nordic combined puts together two very different skills to produce one seriously demanding event.

A men-only discipline, it asks competitors to tackle the ski jump first, and ends with a race for the gold medal on the cross country ski course on day two.

Scandinavians have dominated ever since the Nordic combined made its Olympic debut at the Chamonix Games in 1924.

The Norwegians are the traditional giants, winning 10 of the 18 golds on offer since then.

But Finland dominated in Salt Lake City, with Sampa Lajunen picking up golds in the individual and team events.

HOW THE COMPETITION UNFOLDS

There are three types of Nordic combined events:

Individual Gundersen

Sprint

Team

The Individual Gundersen takes place on the 90m jump, the smaller of the two hills.

More on ski jumping

Each competitor has two jumps, which are judged on length and style using the same rules as the main ski jump competition.

The leader from the ski jump goes first in the freestyle 15km cross country leg, and the winner is the first man to cross the finishing line.

The name of the event comes from the Gundersen Method, which converts ski jumping points into staggered start times for the cross country part of the event.

In the sprint event, competitors have just one jump on the large 120m hill.

More on cross-country skiing

The Gundersen Method is used to determine start times for a 7.5 km cross-country race the following day.

The team event consists of four members taking two jumps each off the 90m hill, and the cross-country leg is a 4x5km relay, with the Gundersen method used to work out which team starts first.

GET INVOLVED

Ski jumping

Unfortunately, there are no ski jumping facilities in the UK, but the sport is very popular in Europe.

The International Ski Federation is the governing body that looks after ski jumping across the world.

FIS

Cross country skiing

Cross country skiing has been traditionally associated with the military.

These websites contain all the information you need to get started:

SnowSport England Nordic Committee

SnowSport Scotland

SnowSport Wales