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Cross-country skiing is a great activity for people of all ages. It allows to enjoy the great outdoors while spending time with family or friends.

There are numerous cross-country facilities that offer lessons - please visit http://www.cccski.com for more information on a facility near you; or for information on how to get involved at a competitive level.

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There are two distinct styles of cross-country skiing: classical and freestyle technique.

Skiers take alternate steps and use their poles to glide along the snow, on courses that actually have two parallel ski tracks that skiers glide in. The freestyle technique looks more like a skating motion and is a faster than the classical technique, but much more exhausting.

Cross-country skiing is divided into four disciplines: the sprint, the middle/long distance, the pursuit, and the relay.

In the sprint the athlete tries to cover a short distance in the least amount of time. Both men and women compete in a 1.5 km sprint and are permitted to use the freestyle technique – the fastest skier wins.

The next event is the middle/long distance races. Men compete in 10 km, 30 km, and 50 km events, while the women compete in 10 km, 15 km and 30 km races.

In the pursuit, skiers compete in two races on the same day. In the first race the skiers use the classical style, whereas in the second race they use the freestyle technique.

The fourth discipline is the team relay. Athletes compete in teams of four with one skier racing at a time, when the first racer finishes the second racer starts and so on, until the fourth racer crosses the finish line. In both relay events, the first two skiers use the classical style whereas the last two racers compete using the freestyle technique.

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Evidence shows that cross country skiing originated over 5000 years ago in Norway with people using primitive skis.

Cave paintings, from as early as the 10th century, portray Vikings using archaic skis as a mode of transportation.

Improvements in technology and mans love of sport transformed Cross Country skiing from a simple way of getting around to an exciting and challenging event that was contested at the inaugural Winter Olympic Games in Chamonix, 1924.

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