After finishing first in a qualifying ski jumping World Cup event, the male winner Jan Haerl won 3,000 Swiss francs, whilst the female winner Selina Freitag won towels and shampoo. This has sparked discussion on gender equality, especially considering the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games still excludes women from one of the ski disciplines, Nordic Combined.
After finishing first in qualifying at the Two Nights Tournament in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany on December 30, Germany’s Freitag voiced: “I received a partner bag with shower gel and shampoo and four hand towels. We unfortunately didn’t have a spare five hundred (euros) or so.” Conversely, the male qualifying winner Jan Haerl won 3,000 Swiss francs.
The International Ski Federation (FIS) has expressed that women’s ski jumping is a relatively new sport which unfortunately has less spectator interest and marketing revenues than men’s ski jumping and therefore has less prize money available.
Women’s ski jumping only made its debut at the highest level in 2014 in Sochi. Men had been competing in ski jumping for nearly a century before that.
During the fight to get ski jumping opened to women, detractors claimed women's bodies weren't built for the sport, U.S. Nordic and Ski Jumping Sport Director Jed Hinkley told NPR.
“The science has disproved that,” he said.
Her Sport, an organisation which advocates for gender equality in sport, expressed that this situation: “highlights the inequalities that still exist in sport to this day.” “We often hear the argument that it comes down to revenue generation, but … revenue doesn’t grow in a vacuum,” the group added. “It starts with investment & commitment to bridging the gap.”
The women’s event was eventually won by Slovenia’s Nika Prevc, who collected 4,300 Swiss francs in prize money. Austria’s Daniel Tschofenig, who won the men’s event, collected 13,000 Swiss francs in prize money.
This discrepancy has also highlighted that women are still excluded from competing in Nordic Combined in the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. Nordic combined competitions involve ski jumping - during which athletes are scored on style and distance. Later, the athletes then compete in a cross-country skiing race.
America’s Tara Geraghty-Moats is considered one of the top female competitors in the world when it comes to Nordic Combined, for example. She has competed in the Women’s FIS Nordic Combined World Cup but is unable to compete in this event in the Winter Olympics. Women have been unable to participate in this event in the Winter Olympics since 1924. She believes the same discriminatory beliefs that initially prevented women’s ski jumping from being part of the Games are at play here.
“I do really respect the work the [International Ski Federation] and the [International Olympic Committee] have done, to some extent of expanding women's sports. But we need to be honest about the discrimination that is still happening,” Geraghty-Moats said.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has agreed that Nordic Combined does “not fulfil universality.” It has expressed that it wants to expand its audience, which will hopefully also benefit women.
Even though this obvious discrepancy between men and women in winter sports remains potent, Diana Bianchedi, the Chief Strategy Planning and Legacy Officer for Milano Cortina 2026, has expressed that she is trying hard to continue the gender equality legacy of the Paris 2024 Games, seemingly focusing on the workforce:
“We are aiming for more than 40 per cent women in our workforce,” Bianchedi told Olympics.com. “Now we have 51 per cent. We are also working hard on this by providing training on gender equity, female leadership and safeguarding as part of the onboarding process for new employees.”
