Malacinski, 19, of Colorado Mountain College, waited until the perfect time to pass Japan’s Sakutaro Kobayashi – the winner of both individual Nordic combined events in the FISU Winter World University Games. That perfect time was in the last leg of the cross-country portion of the Nordic combined competition. 

After starting behind Kobayashi in the final leg, Malacinski passed him on a flat area and somehow accelerated uphill to create a huge gap between him and the Japanese Nordic combined athlete despite being exhausted.

“That’s what I was hoping for. I left it all out there,” Malacinski said. “I said, ‘Let’s give it 110%,’ so I gave it 100% out there and tried to give it that extra 10%.”

His efforts on the final leg of the race were good enough to give him and his teammate Evan Nichols, 19, of the Community College of Vermont, a gold medal in a time of 24 minutes, 51.1 seconds. Japan’s first-team of Kobayashi and Takuya Nakazawa placed second in 24:58.5, while the Ukrainian team of Dmytro Mazurchuk and Vitalii Hrebeniuk finished in third in 25:33.2.

The event started with ski jumping, where Kobayshi and Nakazawa stole the show by jumping to a score of 235.8. Malacinski and Nichols had the second-best jump score 216.8, forcing them to start the cross-country race 25 seconds behind the Japanese team.

“We had been jumping well, but Kobayashi had just been dominant in the jumping,” Nichols said. “We knew he would be the main problem for us coming in, but we had a mass start race the other day and Niklas had the fastest time out there and I was third fastest. We kind of knew that this would be our strong suit to go out there and kill it in the race. That’s what we did.”

Tuesday’s win marked the first time the U.S. landed on the top of the podium. The U.S. had previously won four silver medals — in cross-country skiing, figure skating and Nordic combined — and a bronze in Nordic combined at the World University Games. Nichols said it means a lot to be the first U.S. athletes to win gold.

“We’ve been hanging out with a lot of the other athletes from the U.S. in other sports right at the Olympic Training Center right in town,” Nichols said. “It’s really cool to get that first gold not only for the U.S. but for Nordic combined. It’s great to represent and show them what we’ve got.”

The gold medal also marked the first time the United States had ever won gold in Nordic combined. Malacinski and Nichols also own the only other medals won by an American in Nordic combined at the World University Games. 

“It’s definitely a huge step forward especially for this sport,” Malacinski said. “It’s giving us something to look forward to in future games.”

Earlier this week, Malacinski won silver in both the individual mass start and the individual Gundersen, while Nichols took bronze in the mass start.

“I think Nordic combined is a much lesser-known sport in the U.S. and I think we need to make our names somehow,” Nichols said. “It’s a big sport in a lot of other countries, especially Europe and we’d love to make it a big sport here. I think we have a great future in this sport. We have a good young group coming up that will hopefully be in the Olympics in the next round and getting medals there.”

The second U.S. team, which consisted of Paul Smith’s College student Aidan Ripp and Williams College student Henry Johnstone, landed in fourth place overall in 26:54.5.

“I’m really proud of our effort,” Johnstone said. “I wasn’t super happy with my jump and that’s been a bit of a struggle this week. It was solid and I think Aidan’s jump was solid. I think where our effort really showed was on the cross-country course. 

“I’m really proud of Aidan’s race and I’m really proud of my race as well,” he added. “We were slowly patient and slowly reeled people in. I think a little bit of an extra start from the jumping could’ve put us within striking distance of the podium. I think if there were a bit more laps we could’ve done it.”

Johnstone and Ripp earned a competition-worst ski jump score of 128.9, placing them 2:23 behind the top team from Japan. 

While their jump might not have been strong, Ripp and Johnstone tore up the cross-country race finishing with the second fastest time of 24:31.5, trailing only Malacinski and Nicols (24:26.1). 

“It was pretty tiring right from the get-go,” Johnstone said. “Just the pace and the course is so hilly and steep. Everyone is cheering for you and you know it’s going to be over quick. It’s easy to just panic. I think preserving lap after lap results began to show really slowly. We caught up to Kazakhstan on the long climb and then Aiden was able to get right up to Poland and I was able to drop Poland. I caught up to Japan – almost. Then Aidan had a hell of a last lap to pass Japan to put us in fourth.”

Ripp said that he knew he and Johnstone could put together a strong race on the skiing side.

“We’re a little disappointed, I know I’ve been jumping pretty poorly,” Ripp said. “I had a little bit better of a jump, but I know Henry was a little disappointed in his jump. He had gone eight meters further in the trial round, which doesn’t count so I was like ‘dang.’ We knew we could try and squeeze something out and we were hoping to make a podium but we weren’t quite there. We were having a great time.”

For the past two Nordic combined competitions, Ripp had dominated the cross-country portion and Tuesday was no exception. He came out lightning quick on the course and helped his team finish 2:03.4 behind the winners. 

“(Ripp’s) intimidating,” Johnstone said. “He’s just got a motor and he’s known for that. He’s able to go-go and I’m really proud to be his teammate because you don’t want to be skiing against him that’s for sure.”

While he and his teammate were unable to reach the podium, Ripp said it was good to see his American teammates win gold.

“After the double podium, having two guys on the podium – two days ago. It was a huge team effort,” Ripp said. “Skiing the race, making sure those guys can break the pack well. So, I sort of suffered a little bit in my race. But it was really great to see them win that.”

In patriotic fashion, Nichols sported red, white and blue face paint on his cheeks and over his mouth to make an American flag mustache. Johnstone also wore face paint to make out a goatee.

Nichols said it’s a U.S. Nordic combined team tradition that was started by a group of people who no longer compete in Nordic combined.

“(Five-time Olympian and Vermontville native) Billy Demong actually said that he and a couple of his teammates wore face paint in like 2013,” Nichols said. “I wore a U.S. mustache in my first team event at junior world when I was 15. I just love having a little extra team spirit. We couldn’t find face paint so we just bought some little kids paint that you find in plastic containers in a bookstore and started painting. Just a little more team spirit.”

With just one Nordic combined competition left – the mixed team Nordic combined event – many of the U.S. athletes wrapped up their Winter World University Games experience on Tuesday. Malacinski will be the lone U.S. men’s Nordic combined athlete competing in the competition, which will be held on Thursday. He will be joined by women’s Nordic combined athlete Tess Arnone.