Cross Country Skiing

Cross-country skiing has been practiced in the Scandinavian countries since the 18th century, and competitions are known from the early 19th century. The sport has been on the Olympic Programme since the Chamonix Games of 1924. As of 2026, it has been dominated, not surprisingly, by the Scandinavian countries, with Norway leading, followed by Sweden, the Soviet Union, and Finland.

Through 2026, the most successful cross-country skier has been Norwegian Marit Bjørgen, with 15 medals (an absolute Winter Olympic record) and eight gold medals. In the women’s competition, she is followed by Russian Lyubov Yegorova, with six gold medals, and by Raisa Smetanina (URS/EUN) and Stefania Belmondo (ITA), both with a total of 10 medals.

Norwegian Bjørn Dæhlie led the men’s medal tables until 2022, with 12 medals and eight golds. At Milano-Cortina 2026, his compatriot Johannes Høsflot Klæbo participated in six events and won gold in all of them. Together with the medals he had won in his previous two Olympic participations, Klæbo totaled 11 golds (and 13 medals), also an absolute Winter Olympic record and second Olympic all-time best, behind only swimmer Michael Phelps, with 23 golds.

The sport is governed by the former Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS), which was founded on 2 February 1924 during the Chamonix Olympics. The FIS succeeded the Internationale Skikommission (CIS), which had been formed on 18 February 1910 in Christiania (today Oslo, Norway). Despite keeping the acronym FIS, on 26 May 2022, at the FIS Congress at Milano, Italy, its name was changed to the International Ski & Snowboard Federation. The FIS not only governs cross country skiing, but also the Olympic disciplines of Alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, Nordic combined, ski jumping, and snowboarding. As of January 2026, the FIS has 141 affiliated member nations.

Until the 1970s, all cross-country racers competed in the same style, alternating legs and arms with the stride being pushed straight backwards, remaining in the ski track. In the 1970s, a new style was developed by American Bill Koch, making a skating-like motion with one of the skis, and this technique turned out to be much faster. The FIS was pushed to ban this style by the North Europeans, but it was decided instead to allow two styles. However, races are now designated as either “classical” or “freestyle”, with skating being allowed only in freestyle races.

Originally, all cross-country races were held in a time trial fashion, with skiers starting in intervals. However, after revision of the programme in the early 21st century, only one such race is left on the Olympic Programme, the 10 km for both men and women. As of 2026, the other individual events are: the sprint, in which four to six skiers race head-to-head in heats for approximately 1,500 metres; the skiathlon (formerly pursuit), in which half of the race is skied in classical style and half in freestyle; and the mass-start marathon, which is now held over 50 km for both men and women (until 2022, women competed in a 30 km format). In addition, two team competitions are staged for both men and women: the relay and the team sprint.