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 theChamonix Games of 1924. As of 2022, it has been dominated, not surprisingly, by the Scandinavian countries, withNorway leading, followed bySweden, theSoviet Union, andFinland.

Through 2022, the most successful cross-country skier has been NorwegianMarit Bjørgen, with 15 medals and eight gold medals, both absolute Winter Olympic records. In the women’s competition, she is followed by RussianLyubov Yegorova, with six gold medals, and byRaisa Smetanina andStefania Belmondo, both with a total of 10 medals.

NorwegianBjørn Dæhlie leads the men’s medal tables as of 2022, with 12 medals and eight golds, followed by his compatriotsJohannes Høsflot Klæbo andThomas Alsgaard, both with five gold medals, and bySixten Jernberg andAleksandr Bolshunov, both with a total of nine medals.

The sport is governed by the 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). Despite keeping the acronym FIS, on 26 May 2022, at the FIS Congress at Milano, Italy, its name was changed to theInternational Ski & Snowboard Federation. FIS not only governs cross country skiing, but also the Olympic disciplines ofAlpine skiing,freestyle skiing,Nordic combined,ski jumping, andsnowboarding. As of 2024, the FIS had 138 member associations.

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 AmericanBill 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 15 km for men and the 10 km for women. As of2022, 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 held over 50 km for men, and 30 km for women. In addition, two team competitions are staged for both men and women: the relay and the team sprint.