Norwegian soldiers are known to have been competing in Nordic skiing since the 19th century. The first major competition in Nordic combined was held in 1892 in Oslo at the first Holmenkollen Ski

Nordic Combined.

Norwegian soldiers are known to have been competing in Nordic skiing since the 19th century. The first major competition in Nordic combined was held in 1892 in Oslo at the first Holmenkollen Ski Festival, an event still held annually. In Norway, popularity of the Holmenkollen, and Nordic combined in general, was great. It is still held in all Winter Olympics. There is currently no women's competition sanctioned by the International Ski Federation.

The sport was included at the 1924 Winter Olympics, and has been on the programme ever since. World Championships have been held since 1925.

Traditionally, Norway has always delivered top athletes in the sport, but Finland, Germany, Austria, and France are also among the top nations in the Nordic combined.

Until the 1950s, the cross-country race was held first, followed by the ski jumping. This was reversed as the difference in the cross-country race tended to be too big to overcome in ski jumping.

There are currently four kinds of Nordic combined events, of which three - the individual, sprint and team - are World Championship events. A fourth, the mass start, was introduced at the 2009 championships at Liberec, Czech Republic. At the autumn 2008 FIS meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, it was agreed that the individual and sprint events would be replaced by compact versions of the events. These new versions would also be contested at the 2009 world championships in Liberec.

Bobsleigh

Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of two or four make d runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sled. The timed runs are combined to calculate the final score.

The various types of sleds came several years before the first tracks were built in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where the original bobsleds were adapted upsized luge/skeleton sleds designed by the adventurously wealthy to carry passengers. All three types were adapted from boys' delivery sleds and toboggans.

Competition naturally followed, and to protect the working class and rich visitors in the streets and byways of St Moritz, bobsledding was eventually banned from the public highway. In the winter of 1903/1904 the Badrutt family, owners of the historic Kulm Hotel and the Palace Hotel, allowed Emil Thoma to organise the construction of the first familiarly configured 'half-pipe' track in the Kulm Hotel Park, ending in the village of Cresta. It has hosted the sport during two Olympics and is still in use today.

International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (FIBT). National competitions are often governed by bodies such as the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation and Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton.

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