Skiing in Victoria, Australia takes place in the Australian Alps located in the State of Victoria during the southern hemisphere winter. Victoria is the State with the greatest number of ski resorts in Australia. The highest peak in Victoria is Mount Bogong at 1986m. The first ski tow was constructed near Mount Buffalo in 1938. Victoria has a number of well developed ski resorts including Mount Hotham, Falls Creek and Mount Buller. Cross country skiing is popular in such national parks as Mount Buffalo National Park and Alpine National Park.
The Falls Creek Alpine Resort is an alpine ski resort in the Hume region in northeastern Victoria, Australia. It is located in the Alpine National Park in the Victorian Alps, approximately 350 kilometres by road from Melbourne, with the nearest town being Mount Beauty, which is approximately 30 km (20 mi) away. The resort lies between an elevation of 1,500 and 1,830 m above sea level, with the highest lifted point at 1,780 m (5,840 ft). Skiing is possible on the nearby peak of Mount McKay at 1,842 m (6,043 ft), accessed by snowcat from the resort.
The American Birkebeiner, or Birkie, is the largest cross-country skiing race in North America. It debuted in 1973 and is a founding member of the Worldloppet federation of cross-country ski marathons. The Birkie's two premier events are the 50 km (31 mi) skate and the 55 km (34 mi) classic races between the towns of Cable and Hayward in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Each year more than 10,000 skiers participate in the Birkie, including the full-distances races, a 29 km (18 mi) Kortelopet race, and a 15 km (9.3 mi) Prince Haakon race.
The Worldloppet Ski Federation is an international federation of long distance cross-country skiing events whose aim is to promote cross-country skiing through ski races. The federation was founded on 10 June 1978 in Uppsala, Sweden.
Winter sports in Australia encompasses a great variety of activities across the continent of Australia, including winter sports played in snow and ice such as ice hockey. Climate varies considerably from the tropical North to temperate South in Australia, and sporting practices vary accordingly. Ice and snow sports like Skiing in Australia are conducted in the high country of the Australian Alps and Tasmanian Wilderness. Australia has relatively low mountain ranges, but a long history of participation in recreational skiing and the Winter Olympic Games. Australians have won olympic gold in ice skating, skiing and snow-boarding events. Australia's generally flat geography and usually mild winter climate otherwise provide ideal conditions for international non-snow/ice winter sports and team games like rugby union football, rugby league football, and association football (soccer), which are all popular sports during the Australian winter and in which Australia has enjoyed considerable international success. Australian rules football is a home-grown winter football code with a wide following throughout Australia. Many other sports are also played or watched in Australia through the winter season.
Birkebeinerrennet is a long-distance cross-country ski marathon held annually in Norway. It debuted in 1932 and has been a part of Worldloppet since Worldloppet's inception in 1979.
Natascia Leonardi Cortesi is a Swiss cross-country skier and ski mountaineer who has competed since 1988 in the World Cup circuit. She won a bronze medal in the 4 × 5 km relay at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and had her best individual finish with a tenth place in the 30 km event at those same games. This was the first olympic medal ever for a Swiss woman cross-country team. Leonardi Cortesi's best score at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships was a fifth place in the 4 × 5 km relay in 1999.
Marcialonga is a cross-country ski race which is arranged for the last Sunday in January in Trentino in Italy. It was first held in 1971 and has been a part of Worldloppet as long as Worldloppet has been around.
Finlandia-hiihto is a long-distance cross-country skiing competition, held in Finland each February. Initially, the track stretched from Hämeenlinna to Lahti via Lammi. Since the original course went across several lakes and the ice quality varied from winter to winter, the race was later moved to a location near Lahti.
The Ski to Sea Race (S2S), widely known as the Ski to Sea, is a seven-legged, 93-mile (150 km) long, multi-event competition held on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend in Whatcom County. The race starts on the ski slopes of Mount Baker Ski Area, and ends at Marine Park in Fairhaven, on the shore of Bellingham Bay. The seven legs of the race are: cross-country skiing, downhill skiing or snowboarding, running, road biking, canoeing, cyclo-cross biking, and finally kayaking. The Ski to Sea Race is managed by Whatcom Events, with a race committee that includes a race director, an operations assistant, one or two chairmen to oversee each event, a volunteer coordinator along with nearly 900 volunteers.
Skiing in Australia takes place in the Australian Alps in the states of New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory as well as in the mountains of the island state Tasmania, during the Southern Hemisphere winter.
Fossavatnsgangan is an annual ski marathon held in Ísafjörður, in the Westfjords of Iceland. The event has been a part of Worldloppet since 2014.
Stanislav Řezáč is a Czech long-distance cross-country skier competing in the Worldloppet Ski Federation series of races.
The Engadin Skimarathon is an annual cross-country skiing race held on the second Sunday of March in the upper Engadine valley (Switzerland), between Maloja and S-chanf. It debuted in 1969 and has been a part of Worldloppet as long as Worldloppet has existed. It is one of the major cross-country skiing events in the Alps. Between 11,000 and 14,200 skiers participate each year. The total distance covered is 42 km, although it is also possible to complete the half-marathon of 21 km or the 17 km Women's Race. While it is a freestyle race, there are separate tracks for skiers practicing classic style for all but the narrowest parts of the race. Participation is open to anyone from the age of 16, and no licence is required to sign up.
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.
The Demino Ski Marathon is a cross-country skiing marathon in Russia. It has been held since 2007 and was appointed as a Worldloppet event in June 2012. It is the most popular ski race in Russia.
The Holmenkollen 50 km is an annual cross-country skiing race held at Holmenkollen National Arena in Oslo, Norway. The competition is part of the Holmenkollen Ski Festival. Previous to 2023 The 50 km distance is raced by men only as the women's equivalent is a 30 km race. Starting in 2023 both men and women will race 50k.
The Canadian Birkebeiner is the largest classic style cross-country ski event in Western Canada. Founded in 1985, it is one of three Birkebeiner Loppets held worldwide, the others being the Norwegian Birkebeinerrennet and the American Birkebeiner. The event is organized annually on the second Saturday of February by approximately 500 volunteers of the Canadian Birkebeiner Society. About 1000 skiers take part in the one-day event, which includes races from 2 km to 55 km. The three main races are the 55 km with 5.5 kg backpack, the 55 km light and the 31 km from Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, via Elk Island National Park and finishing at Washkahegan Staging Area in Cooking Lake–Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area, Alberta. The Canadian Birkebeiner is organized in the UNESCO-designated Beaver Hills Biosphere.
The men's downhill in the 2023 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of ten events, including the final. The season had been planned with fourteen downhills, but early in the season, two scheduled downhills on 29/30 October 2022 on the Matterhorn, running from Switzerland (Zermatt) into Italy (Cervinia), were canceled due to lack of snow and not rescheduled. Later in the season, a downhill scheduled for Garmisch-Partenkirchen on 28 January 2023 was also cancelled for lack of snow and not rescheduled. Finally, on 3 March, a scheduled downhill at Aspen was canceled due to poor visibility and deteriorating weather conditions, even though 24 racers had already started. The first out of the starting gate, Norway's Adrian Smiseth Sejersted, held the lead and was hoping for six more competitors to start so that the race would become official, but the weather conditions prevented that.
