Cross-country skiing is the winter counterpart to the summer games’ long-distance track events. There are six men’s events and six women’s events. The both men and women have relay, team sprint, sprint and skiathon events. The men have a 15 km and 50 km individual race and the women have the shorter 10 km and 30 km races.

The simple sport in highly competitive, but the Norwegians have commanded the sport since the first winter Olympics. Norway has won 96 cross-country skiing medals, with 35 gold. In comparison, the Americans have just a single silver medal over the years. The Norwegian domination is set to continue with Petter Northug and Marit Bjoergen the men’s and women’s

favorites. The best chance for the Americans is Kikkan Randall. The American finished in eighth place in the women’s individual sprint at the 2010 Vancouver Games, and third in the World Cup in 2013.

Expect European domination to continue, however, as Norway had trouble making cuts, with such a talented team, while many countries were unable get a decent team.