Prémanon (France) (AFP)

The last non-mixed Olympic sport, the Nordic combined has finally opened up to women whose first very high-level circuit begins next season. The main objective: to integrate the Olympic program in 2026 more than ... 100 years after men.

Teenage girls set off for a jump from a springboard in the morning, then compete in a cross-country joust in the afternoon at the Jason Lamy-Chappuis des Tuffes stadium, under a returned sun in the Jura. The spectacle offered on Saturday at the 2020 Youth Olympic Games is far from trivial.

The "YOG" mark the first step in a historic year for the discipline at a very high level: next season will be the first World Cup for women combined with eight competitions (the first in Lillehammer in Norway on December 5) in more than a first participation in the Nordic Ski Worlds (from February 23 to March 7, 2021 in Oberstdorf in Germany).

"We are very happy with the level of advancement so far," said the spokesman for the International Ski Federation (FIS) to AFP. Most of the skiers are still very young. As we go along we hope to increase the number of competitors and the overall level when the athletes mature, which is especially true in cross-country skiing. "

For the moment, the sport is satisfied with official competitions of a lower level (Continental Cups, Junior Cups ...) having allowed 94 skiers to calibrate at the international level in 2018/2019.

- At the Olympics in 2026? -

The Grail of the women's combined would be to integrate the Olympic Games in order to gain visibility in particular. The FIS request for the 2022 Games has been refused by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The FIS must try again for the Milan Games and Cortina d'Ampezzo in 2026, 102 years after the appearance of the men's combined at the first Winter Olympics in Chamonix.

"Obviously, I dream of the Olympic Games", smiles the American Tara Geraghty-Moats, current N.1 world of the discipline, and presents at the YOG as "godmother" of the youngest athletes. If the Games are on the program in 2026 I hope to win, even if I will be 32 years old, which is already old in combined. I will try to take care of myself, I wholeheartedly hope to be, the handset is my passion, it will not fade. "

A major obstacle remains, however, to the development of this new discipline: the lack of resources.

Yet the best in the world and therefore a big favorite for the world title in 2021, Tara Geraghty-Moats is not yet 100% supported by the American federation because she has no World Cup points ... which n 'does not exist yet!

- "Zero means" in France -

"This is very good news for the arrival of the women's combined, explains to AFP the director of the French jumping and combined team at the French Ski Federation (FFS) Jérôme Laheurte. It would have been necessary that we wake up a bit before, but for the moment we are doing with our means, that is to say zero. "

"I can't put a coach, a regular vehicle, I can't create a French women's team for lack of financial means. I have less budget than before and more discipline, it's very complicated. "

"We cannot have a full-time operation so we fall behind other nations", like Germany or Norway, which have already assembled their national teams and have a budget about five times greater than that from France for the handset.

For the moment the best French women are "tinkering", the FFS simply allowing them to go on training courses and competitions, without being integrated into a real high performance group.

"It's just a shame that everything is done in an emergency. In four years we go from nothing at all to the Worlds, it's going very fast!", Regrets Mr. Laheurte.

"For the good of this discipline and to save the combined all in all (clearly losing speed), the women's event must become Olympic, everything becomes mixed at the Olympics".

To restore equality in this sport, more than a century later.

© 2020 AFP