Sports Events

Today, there are several types of cross-country competitive events involving races of various types and lengths, as well as the biathlon, involving a combination of cross-country skiing and rifle shooting.

The Winter Olympics, FIS World Championships and FIS World Cup events have long been a showcase for the world's fastest cross country skiers. There are also special extreme distance ski races, sometimes called ski marathons, such as Vasaloppet, in Sweden.

The skiing styles in these races might be fixed, or, in case of the "double pursuit" event, the skating and classical technique are used each in their own separate half of the race, with a change of equipment in "pit stops" half way through.