Anja Sofia Tess Pärson is a Swedish former alpine skier. She is an Olympic gold medalist, seven-time gold medalist at the World Championships, and two-time overall Alpine Skiing World Cup champion. This included winning three gold medals in the 2007 World Championship in her native Sweden. She has won a total of 42 World Cup races.
Andrus Veerpalu is a retired Estonian cross-country skier. He is Estonia's most successful Winter Olympian, having won the gold medal in men's 15 km classical in 2002 and 2006, and silver in men's 50 km classical in 2002.
Christian Hoffmann is an Austrian former cross-country skier who began competing in 1994. He won the bronze medal in the 50 km at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. Four years later at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Hoffmann finished second in the 30 km freestyle mass start event to Spain's Johann Mühlegg, but was awarded the gold medal in 2004 upon Mühlegg's blood-doping disqualification of darbepoetin.
Mikhail Viktorovich Botvinov ; born 17 November 1967 in Lidinka, Soviet Union) is a Russian-born Austrian cross-country skier who competed from 1990 to 2007 for both Russia and Austria.
The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2001 took place February 15–25, 2001 in Lahti, Finland for a record sixth time, previous events being held in 1926, 1938, 1958, 1978 and 1989. These championships also saw the most event changes since the 1950s with the 5 km women and 10 km men's events being discontinued, the 10 km women and 15 km men's events return to their normal status for the first time since the 1991 championships, the debut of a combined pursuit as a separate category, the addition of the individual sprint race for both genders, and the debut of the ski jumping team normal hill event. Extremely cold weather cancelled the women's 30 km event. The biggest controversy occurred when a doping scandal hit the host nation of Finland, resulting in six disqualifications. This would serve as a prelude to further doping cases in cross country skiing at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City the following year.
Kaisa Varis is a Finnish retired cross-country skier and biathlete. Her career has been marred by doping convictions: as a cross-country skier, she was involved but not suspended in a doping scandal and in 2003 she was suspended two years for doping use. After her suspension, she returned as a biathlete in 2007, but in 2008 she received a lifetime ban from all International Biathlon Union (IBU) competitions after another positive doping test. However, her lifetime ban was overturned in March 2009 because the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the IBU failed to adhere to correct testing procedures; she remains eligible to compete in biathlon.
Marina Charlotte Kalla is a Swedish retired cross-country skier. A four-time Olympian, Kalla won three golds and nine medals overall at the Olympics between 2004 and 2022. She holds the joint record as Sweden's most decorated Olympic competitor and is the all-time leader among Swedish female athletes. She is also a 13-time medalist at the World Championships, including a gold medal at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2015 10 km freestyle event in Falun. This made Kalla the first Swedish female cross-country skier to win individual golds in both the Olympics and World Championships. In 2008, Kalla won the Jerring Award.
Katja Višnar is a Slovenian, former cross-country skier who competed between 2002 and 2020. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, she finished 11th in the team sprint, 15th in the 4 × 5 km relay, and 16th in the individual sprint events.
Björn Ferry is a former Swedish biathlete and medal winning Olympian. He began competing internationally in World Cup competitions in 2001, but did not win his first international race until the 2007–2008 season. In 2007, he won gold in the mixed relay event at the Biathlon World Championships. The next year, at his third Winter Olympics appearance, he won the gold medal in the pursuit event. He started the event in 8th place as determined by the previous sprint event, but managed to overtake the race leader on the final lap.
Alexey Yurevich Poltoranin is a Kazakh cross-country skier who has competed at the international senior level since 2004. He has three World Cup wins, one in 2010 and two in 2013. In the 2013 World Championship in Val di Fiemme he won two bronze medals. Most of his best results are in the classic technique.
Karel Tammjärv is an Estonian cross-country skier who has competed since 2007. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, he finished 46th in the 30 km mixed pursuit and 67th in the 15 km events. He also represented Estonia at the 2014 Winter Olympics and 2018 Winter Olympics.
Algo Kärp is a former Estonian cross-country skier who competed from 2004 to 2018. His best World Cup finish was 16th in a 50km event in 2014 Oslo, Norway. He represented Estonia at the 2010, 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics.
The 41st FIS Nordic World Ski Championships were held from 20 February to 3 March 2019 in Seefeld in Tirol, Tyrol, Austria. It was the second time Seefeld in Tirol hosted the world championships, the event having been hosted there previously in 1985.
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.
Dominik Baldauf is an Austrian cross-country skier from Sulzberg. He competed in the World Cup 2015 season and represented Austria at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2015 in Falun and again in the 2017 World Championships in Lahti.
Andreas Veerpalu is an Estonian cross-country skier who competes internationally.
Frida Elisabeth Karlsson is a Swedish cross-country skier. She won a silver medal in the women's 10 kilometres classical, bronze medal in the women's 30 kilometre freestyle mass start, and gold as a member of the women's 4 × 5 kilometre relay during the 2019 FIS World Championships in Seefeld in Tirol, Austria. With this win, she became the youngest cross-country skiing World Cup gold medalist in history. In April 2018, she received a 50,000 Swedish kronor prize for promising new skiers from former skier Johan Olsson and a bank. The award also gave her the opportunity to use Olsson as a mentor. Karlsson is the daughter of former cross-country skier Ann-Marie Karlsson.
Operation Aderlass was an investigation in Austria and Germany into doping practices carried out by Erfurt-based German physician Mark Schmidt. Athletes from various disciplines were named as alleged customers of Schmidt's, receiving illegal blood transfusion for the purpose of enhancing performances, with several of them later confessing. The investigation centred around athletes from cross-country skiing and cycling.
The 2019–20 FIS Cross-Country World Cup was the 39th official World Cup season in cross-country skiing for men and women. The season began on 29 November 2019 in Ruka, Finland and concluded on 8 March 2020 in Oslo, Norway.
The Austrian Ski Association, is the winter sports federation for Austria. Part of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), it deals with some federations conducting sports for the Winter Olympics, including skiing, biathlon and ski jumping.
Austria 