Nordic Combined

This morning I awoke to news that the International Olympic Committee is considering dropping from its Winter competition the Nordic Combined. Introduced in 1924, the Nordic Combined begins with ski jumping, where the order of finish determines the order in which participants set off on a 10km cross-country ski race. Nordic Combined is the only Olympic sport that does not include women, and male competitors have stepped up their efforts to have the IOC include both "official" genders.

Nordic Combined is considered a fringe sport in the U.S., but remains popular in Europe and Japan, much like the biathlon, which pairs cross-country skiing with rifle shooting, an event that, more than most, seems rooted in the rural life of northern countries. Could the elimination of Nordic Combined be symptomatic of a trend towards dropping events that don't translate well to television, and that the IOC is using the event's historic gender inequality to justify its (potential) cancellation?

Rather than cancel the Nordic Combined, I say drop the 10km cross-country race element and replace it with something many Americans can relate to: rifle shooting. But rather than have skiers complete the jumping portion first, I suggest, in a total collapse of Time and Space, combining both events at once. As skiers race down the jump, 99 red balloons are released, and the winner will be determined by a combination of a clean landing and the highest number of balloons popped.