Beijing 2022 - Cross-Country Skiing

Cross-country skiing as a mode of transportation far outdates its history as a competitive sport. Records of people in Nordic countries strapping planks of wood to their feet to traverse snow-covered terrain date back hundreds of years. What Jessie Diggins and Co. will be doing in Beijing is quite a bit more advanced.

Cross-country skiing emerged as a sport around the turn of the 20th century in Norway, and men’s cross-country skiing has been part of every Olympic Winter Games since the first one in 1924. Women have been racing at the Olympics since 1952.

The Nordic countries have led the way in Olympic cross-country skiing, with Norway’s 47 gold medals and 121 total medals atop both lists. Sweden, with 31 golds and 80 total medals, is next. However, if combining historic versions of the Russian team — including the Soviet Union, the Unified Team and the Russian Olympic Committee — that adds up to 42 gold medals and 118 total medals.

The U.S. has rarely been in the discussion of top cross-country skiing nations — until recently, that is. For years, Bill Koch’s silver medal in 1976 stood as the lone American medal in the sport. Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall changed that in a big way in PyeongChang. Their thrilling victory in the team sprint marked Team USA’s first gold medal in cross-country skiing. Though Randall has since retired, Diggins leads a U.S. team with more medal potential into Beijing.

The competition in Beijing will include 12 events — six for men, six for women. Races are designated as using either the traditional “classic” technique, in which skiers stride forward like they’re walking, or the “freestyle” technique popularized by Koch in which skiers propel themselves using a skating-like motion. The one exception is the skiathlon, which requires skiers to switch techniques at the midway point of the race. Although men and women race at different distances during the Olympics, both have a skiathlon, a freestyle sprint, a team classic sprint, a relay, an individual classic race and a mass start freestyle long-distance race.

The Olympic cross-country skiing events will be held at the National Cross-Country Centre in the Zhangjiakou area northwest of Beijing. In addition to Nordic skiing events, this area will also host most of the freestyle skiing and snowboarding.

Updated on January 28, 2022.