Competitive cross-country skiing encompasses a variety of race formats and course lengths. Rules of cross-country skiing are sanctioned by the International Ski Federation and by various national organizations. International competitions include the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, the FIS Cross-Country World Cup, and at the Winter Olympic Games. Such races occur over homologated, groomed courses designed to support classic (in-track) and freestyle events, where the skiers may employ skate skiing. It also encompasses cross-country ski marathon events, sanctioned by the Worldloppet Ski Federation, and cross-country ski orienteering events, sanctioned by the International Orienteering Federation. Related forms of competition are biathlon, where competitors race on cross-country skis and stop to shoot at targets with rifles, and paralympic cross-country skiing that allows athletes with disabilities to compete at cross-country skiing with adaptive equipment.
Norwegian army units were skiing for sport (and prizes) in the 18th century. Starting in the latter part of the 20th century, technique evolved from the striding in-track classic technique to include skate-skiing, which occurs on courses that have been groomed with wide lanes for those using the technique. At the same time, equipment evolved from skis and poles that were made of wood and other natural materials to comprising such man-made materials as fiberglass, carbon fiber, and polyethylene plastics.
Athletes train to achieve endurance, strength, speed, skill and flexibility at different levels of intensity. Off-season training often occurs on dry land, sometimes on roller skis. The organization of cross-country ski competitions aims to make those events accessible both to spectators and television audiences. As with other sports that require endurance, strength and speed, some athletes have chosen to use banned performance-enhancing drugs.
History
In 1767 Danish-Norwegian general, Schack Carl Rantzau, codified four classes of military skiing contests and established prizes for each: Shooting at prescribed targets at 40–50 paces while skiing downhill at "top speed" (precursor to biathlon). "Hurling" themselves while racing downhill among trees "without falling or breaking skis" (precursor to slalom). Downhill racing on large slopes without "riding or resting on their stick" or falling (precursor to downhill racing). "Long racing" with full military kit and a gun on the shoulder over ca. 2.5 km of "flat ground" within 15 minutes (precursor to modern cross-country skiing).
An early record of a public ski competition was for an 1843 event in Tromsø. The announcement called the event a "wagering race on skis". A distinct alpine technique emerged around 1900 from how skiing was practiced up until then when Mathias Zdarsky advocated the "Lilienfelder Ski Method" as an alternative to the Norwegian technique. In Norwegian, langrenn refers to "competitive skiing where the goal is to complete a specific distance in pre-set tracks in the shortest possible time". Alpine skiing competitions (known as hill races) existed in Norway during the 18th and 19th centuries, but were discontinued when the main ski festival in Oslo focused on long races (competitive cross-country skiing) and ski jumping (now known as the Nordic disciplines). The alpine disciplines reemerged in Central Europe around 1920. Ski touring competitions () are long-distance cross-country competitions open to the public, competition is usually within age categories.
In the 1800s racers used a single, wooden pole, which was longer and stronger than modern poles, and could be used for braking downhill, as well. In Norway, racing with two poles ("Finland style") met with resistance, starting in the 1880s, when some race rules forbade them; objections included issues of aesthetics—how they made skiers "[waddle] like geese". As the use of pairs of pole became the norm, materials favored lightness and strength, starting with bamboo, which gave way to fiberglass, used at the 1968 Winter Olympics, aluminum, used at the 1972 Winter Olympics, and ultimately carbon fiber, introduced in 1975.