Cross-Country Skiing Rules. Everything You Need to Know

Skiing, officially known as cross-country skiing, is a winter kind of sport, an obligatory part of the winter Olympics, where athletes need to overcome a particular distance as quickly as they can. Skiing competitions are held for men and for women. The International Ski Federation (FIS) was created in 1924 and unities all the national federations. It is the main governing body in the world of skiing.

Main Rules

The rules governing the given kind of sport are created and approved by the International Ski Federation. When it comes to official competitions, there can be individual and mass starts. As for the individual starts, 30-second intervals are applied. The authorized official issue command “Attention” 10 seconds before the start. The final countdown “5…4…3…2…1” begins when there are only 5 seconds left before the start. This countdown is then followed by the command “Forward”.

During the skiing process, the athletes may not use any equipment or means of transport other than the skis and skiing sticks. The athletes must follow the track and pass all the checkpoints. On the track, the athletes are allowed to change one ski or the skiing sticks if it is necessary. The given change should be supervised by the authorized officials. Moreover, all the skis must be correspondingly marked prior to the race. The finish time is recorded manually or electronically, with the final result being represented by even seconds.

Skiing Track

The track should be designed in such a way that would present the exhaustive information on the athletes’ technical, tactical, and physical abilities. Different tracks can vary according to their difficulty levels, and this level should correspond to the competition level.

In general, every track can be subdivided into the following elements:

• The one-third of the track should be represented by ascending parts with the angles of 9%-18%. With this, the elevation difference should be 10 meters. Moreover, there should also be a few short by sharp hills with an angle of 18% and more.
• The one-third of the track consists of rolling country with many short ups and downs (the elevation difference is 1-9 meters).
• The one-third of the track is represented by various slopes that will make the athletes utilize various lining techniques.

All the tracks should be used in one direction only that was originally designed. It is the best variant if the track consists of several laps for spectators to be able to see the competing athletes at various stages of the race. The length of tracks can vary significantly from 800 meters to 50 km, which depends on the nature of the competition.

Equipment

Skis are the main element of skiing equipment. They can be classic, skating, and of a mixed type. The athlete’s height used to be the determining factor in choosing the skis. Nowadays, however, the length of the skis depends on the athlete’s weight. All the popular ski producers have a certain system, according to which they determine the length of the skis in accordance with a particular weight.

Boots are a kind of special footwear that is used in combination with the skis. There are two binding systems – SNS and NNN. It is of key importance to identify them perfectly because they are quite different.

Skiing sticks are a kind of equipment that is used by the athletes to keep balance and gather speed during a race.

Skiing Styles

1. Skating style (freestyle) – the style supposes that an athlete is free to choose a way who he or she is going to overcome the distance. It is clear that the given style is able to gather a greater speed in comparison with the classic style.
2. Classic style – this is the kind of moving, according to which an athlete overcomes almost all the distance through a prepared ski trial. Classic styles can be subdivided according to the way how an athlete uses the sticks. Thus, there are alternative and simultaneous classic styles.

Skiing Disciplines

1. Individual competitions – skiing competitions where the athletes start in turn with a stipulated interval. Usually, the interval equals to 30 seconds.
2. Mass Start events – all the athletes should start simultaneously.
3. Pursuit – this competition consists of several stages. The athletes should use the classic style for the first stage and the skating one for the other. The athletes’ position at each stage is determined by their previous results.
4. Relay – these competitions are held among teams with four members in each. The Relay consists of 4 stages. There are Relays of one style (all the member overcome their distance with either classic or skating style) or two styles (the first two stages should be overcome by the classic style, while the last two – by the freestyle). To perform a changeover, an athlete should touch any part of his partner’s body with the palm. Moreover, the two must be within the changeover zone.
5. Sprint – there can be individual and team competitions in the given discipline.

Popular Skiing Events

1. The Olympic Games – the most prestigious skiing competitions, held every 4 years.
2. World Ski Championships – the second prestigious skiing competition that is held in odd-numbered years.
3. Ski World Cup – an annual skiing tournament that is being held by the FIS every year from October to March.

History

According to historians and written testimony dating back to the 6th-7th centuries B.C., northern hunters were the first people to create and use skis. The first skis had many similarities with modern snowshoes. Due to severe climatic conditions, it was in Norway where the skis were extremely popular and useful. Thus, skiing was an obligatory part of Norwegian military training in the early 18th century. What is more, the first skiing competitions were held later in the same century.

The early 19th century saw the first skiing community appear. In a while, the first skiing club was opened in Finland, which was a motivation for similar clubs to appear in various cities of Europe, Asia, and the United States of America. The skiing competitions in the modern meaning of the word were held almost in every world country till the end of the century.

The 1924 Winter Olympics was the first international tournament to witness skiing competitions. However, only men were allowed to participate. As for female athletes, they started participating in the Olympics in 1952.