Malacinski (USA) talks Norway move, Olympic dreams and hypnosis: 'It's such a great thing for your head'

Annika Malacinski (USA) hopes that a Norway move and hypnosis can bring her Nordic Combined game to the next level.

The 23-year-old, who landed a 15th place in the overall 2024/2025 Viessmann FIS Nordic Combined World Cup standings, said "confidence" is key to climbing higher in the world top and reaching her goal to "one day be a champion".

"I get very nervous and anxious, especially on the ski jumping hills. It kind of makes me lock up and almost black out, so I'm just going to keep working on my mental game and the physical will come with it," Malacinski said after finishing 24th in the Gundersen at the 2025 FIS Nordic Ski World Championships in Trondheim, Norway, having been 26th after the Ski Jumping.

"I did expect more for sure, but I'm 24th in the world, that's something, and I'm hungry for more, so I'm just going to keep trying to push limits and be the best athlete that I can be and one day be a champion."

Not afraid of trying out new things, Malacinski has implemented hypnosis into her weekly routine as a way to keep calm in competitions.

"It's a crazier out-of-the-box thing that I do once a week, with a very amazing woman named Mary, from Florida (USA)," she said.

"She basically puts me in this hypnotic trance and we go into this place that feels comfortable, confident and amazing, and I'm trying to lock in that mindset when I'm at the top of the jumps.

Standing in the pouring rain of Trondheim, the Nordic Ski metropolis that Malacinski has made her home, she explained what her happy place looks like, starting by looking around and stating that "well, it isn't this".

"The first ever hypnosis session that I did, which was in person, it came to me so clearly and fast. I was in a cloud, it was sunset so everything was pink and I was sitting on a glass box, just floating in the sky, and it was one of the most insane experiences in my entire life," Malacinski said.

She said the stereotypical image of entering a state of hypnosis through staring into a swinging pocket watch or a spinning black-and-white spiral is far from how it works in real life.

"She directs you into that hypnotic trance and we're using our subconscious mind to do all the work; get all the confidence, do the visualization, so it’s really some incredible work."

In the Mass Start Normal Hill at Trondheim 2025, she had finished in 25th place, making the Gundersen the best individual result of her third World Championships.

With 10 top-20 finishes in the past World Cup season however, Malacinski said she has started to feel the results of the hypnosis exercisis.

"This (Trondheim 2025) was not my best event and I always strive for more but I have touched a little bit of success in the World Cup," she said.

Malacinski's eighth place in the 2023/2024 season came in the Gundersen in Ramsau (AUT), making her No.14 in the overall standings as that season concluded one year ago. In the winter that just ended, her season-best 11th place also came in Austria, in Seefeld’s Compact competition in February.

In August last year, Malacinski moved to this season’s World Championships host city to train with some of the best in the world, including Gyda Westvold Hansen (NOR), who claimed gold medals in the Gundersen as well as the Team event at Trondheim 2025.

"This place is really just full of energy and I’m just really happy. I'm extremely happy for my teammate Gyda, she deserves this (Gundersen gold)," Malacinski said.

The American also thinks that her own Nordic Combined has improved a lot after the move to the Scandinavian winter sport superpower – a decision she has never regretted.

"I never in a million years thought that I'd end up in a town or city called Trondheim, Norway, but I think it was the best decision for myself," she said.

Branding the competitions in front of the tens of thousands of Nordic Ski fans in her new hometown an ”incredible” experience, Malacinski hopes to stay in Trondheim and continue to train with the Norwegian stars.

"Trondheim was the best place to do it (in)," she said.

"This is my third World Championships and this has by far been the best one. Last time, in Slovenia (Planica), it was great to compete in the mountains but the people in Trondheim really brought a different kind of energy and positivity to it and it was amazing."

Some had travelled far to see her.

"My whole family is here; my mum, my dad, my godmother, my godfather, their two kids, my uncle and a lot of friends that I've made in Trondheim, so it’s been incredible to have them coming to support me live in Trondheim."

Malacinski does not only have family in the stands. Since 2021, her brother Niklas Malacinski (USA), 21, is also on the Nordic Combined circuit, where he was the best USA skier in the men’s overall World Cup standings last winter, placed 26th.

"My brother and I are extremely close so it’s like having a home away from home," Annika Malacinski said.

The Malacinski siblings, both in the team finishing ninth in the Mixed Team event at Trondheim 2025, hope to boost the interest for Nordic Combined in their home country.

"Being from the United States, a lot of people just don't know what Nordic Combined is, which is crazy," Malacinski said.

"I want to be able to spread awareness and spread this amazing sport, because at the end of the day it's a legacy sport.

One way to increase the interest for the sport in USA would be to get Women’s Nordic Combined included in the Olympic Games – something that Malacinski is a vocal campaigner for.

"We keep pushing. It’s my biggest goal in life to get Women’s Nordic Combined to be in the Olympics and just show the IOC (International Olympic Committee) that they’re making a very horrible and wrong decision not allowing me to compete with my brother," she said.

"I train with him, we do the same stuff, so why does one gender get to go and one doesn't. So the biggest goal is to get us into the Olympics and I'm going to keep fighting until we are there."

Click here for all results from the 2024/2025 World Cup season, here for the World Cup standings and here to follow FIS Nordic Combined on Youtube.