The history of cross-country skiing dates back thousands of years starting when humans realized that, by attaching two shaped pieces of wood to their feet, they could travel faster when game hunting in snow-covered fields and woods. Many centuries later, the army started to ski; however, it was not considered a sport until the 19th century. Skis already existed in 5,000 BC, as proven by cave drawings in Norway and parts of skis discovered in swamps in Switzerland.

The most practical use of skis for military purposes dates back to 1564, when Swedish soldiers equipped with skis conquered the city of Trondheim, arriving before the Norwegians who were travelling on foot. However, in Norway, skiing as a sport did not develop until the second half of the 19th century. The very first competition was considered to have occurred in Tromsö, Norway, in 1843, followed by the first competition in Finland in 1865. Nineteen years after the Finnish race, Lars Tuorda from Lapland won a two-stage 220-kilometre race in the north of Sweden in 22 hours and 22 minutes. This was the first official timing in the history of cross-country skiing.

Skier Fridtjof Nansen increased awareness of skiing with the publication of his book detailing his 500-kilometre march crossing the south of Greenland. In 1893, during the first Nordic Games, long-distance skiing and ski jumping were held on the hill of Holmenkollen (Oslo, Norway); that same year, the first long-distance races were held in Central Europe in Mürzzuschlag (Austria) and Jilemnice (in the former Czechoslovakia).

Cross-country skiing appeared in the first Olympic Winter Games held in Chamonix in 1924 where Norwegian Torleif Haug swept all three races (the 18 kilometre, the 50 kilometres and the combined). The first women’s race (10 kilometre) took place in 1952 in Oslo. Other men’s and women’s events and race formats have been added since their respective debuts at the Games.

Cross-country skiing saw a significant change in 1988 in Calgary when the sport evolved to allow not only the classical “kick and glide” technique events, but also the new skating technique events. Another innovation was the mass start, which saw all athletes starting at the same time instead of one-by-one every 30 seconds; this was introduced in the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City in 2002 along with the introduction of the sprint event (approximately 1.5 km).

Cross-country skiing is the sport with the largest number of events and provides one of the largest sources of medals at the Olympic Winter Games.