Nordic Combined at the 2010 Winter Olympics

The Nordic combined program saw a change for the first time since the sprint event was added in 2002. In 2002 and 2006 there had been the Individual event, contested on the normal hill for jumping, with two jumps, followed by a 15 km cross-country race, starting by the Gundersen method; and the Sprint, contested with one jump on the large hill, followed by a 7.5 km cross-country race, also using a Gundersen start. A team event had been on the program since 1988. In 2010, the two individual races were changed to a normal hill event and a large hill event. Both also were changed to allow only one jump in the ski jumping, followed by a 10 km cross-country race. The team event was also changed to only a single jump for each team member.

The Nordic combined took place at Whistler Olympic Park, on the ski jumps built there, and the local cross-country courses. The big story of the competition was the performance of the United States combined athletes. Prior to 2010, no American had won a medal in Nordic combined. In Vancouver, they won four – silver by Johnny Spillane in the normal hill event; a silver in the team event, and in the final combined event, a gold by Bill Demong, with Spillane adding another silver. Austria won two medals, with France, Italy, and Germany winning a single medal.