Cross-country skiing: 2024-25 World Cup season preview, full schedule, and how to watch Winter Olympic qualifying action for Milano Cortina 2026 

Cross-country skiing is back this week with the start of the 2024-25 World Cup season.

The best cross-country skiers in the world will begin the new campaign in Ruka, Finland on 29 November 2024, ahead of a crucial period in the sport with ranking points on offer towards qualification for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

Before the World Cup campaign comes to a conclusion in March 2025, also in Finland, it will pause for the Nordic World Ski Championships, to be held across February and March, also offering cross-country skiers a chance to earn quota spots for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy*.

As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Milano Cortina Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Milano Cortina.

Here are the key things you need to know about the FIS Cross-Country World Cup campaign, which includes sprint and distance races in the fight for the end-of-season crystal globe trophies.

2024-25 Cross-Country World Cup – format and schedule

Competition in each of the 12 World Cup stops is split into men’s, women’s, team, and mixed team.

There are 30 individual competitions overall in each of the men’s and women’s calendars, 19 of them are distance events, and 11 are sprint races, in addition to relay/team events and one joint mixed event.

Races are either interval start, where athletes begin the race one by one and the winner is based on the quickest time, or mass start, where all athletes begin together and the first across the finish line should be crowned victorious.

Cross-country ski racing takes see athletes using either classic or freestyle technique. In classic (C) events, the ski's are always parallel and the track includes grooves in the snow for the skier to follow. Freestyle (F) technique is less restricted, with skiers free to use either classic or skating technique, where they push themselves forward using angled ski's on sections of the course which have no groove follow.

The 2024-25 season sees a mix of classic and freestyle events, and also features skiathlon races, which combine sections of both classic and free skiing.

At the end of each race, points are awarded to the finishers, at different rates for each position, ranging from 100 points for an individual winner and 300 for victorious teams.

The skier with most total points from the 30 races after the final World Cup stop wins the overall crystal globe trophy. A smaller globe, also made of full lead crystal, is awarded to the leader of each discipline – distance and sprint - at the end of the season.

Along with the Nordic World Ski Championships break, the World Cup will pause for the Tour de Ski at the end of 2024, which takes place between 28 December 2024 – 5 January 2025. This is a prestigious multi-race event, held annually, with a diverse range of competitions including pursuit races, where skiers start based on the order of the previous race ranking. Athletes compete for their national teams, and winners are crowned following the final race in Italy.

The Tour de Ski takes place in the Italian alpine resorts of Toblach and Val di Fiemme, the latter of which will host the cross-country skiing events at Milano Cortina 2026.

The full World Cup schedule is available here.

2024-25 Cross-Country skiing World Cup season – full race schedule

• 29 November-1 December 2024: World Cup - Ruka, Finland
• 6-8 December 2024: World Cup - Lillehammer, Norway
• 13-15 December 2024: World Cup - Davos, Switzerland
• 28 December 2024-1 January 2025: World Cup - Tobalch, Italy
• 28 December 2024-5 January 2025: Tour de Ski - Toblach, Italy; Val di Fiemme, Italy
• 3-5 January 2025: World Cup - Val di Fiemme, Italy
• 17-19 January 2025: World Cup - Les Rousses, France
• 24-26 January 2025: World Cup - Engadin, Switzerland
• 31 January-2 February 2025: World Cup - Cogne, Italy
• 14-16 February 2025: World Cup - Falun, Sweden
• 26 February-9 March 2025: Nordic World Ski Championships - Trondheim, Norway
• 15-16 March 2025: World Cup - Oslo, Norway
• 19 March 2025: World Cup - Tallinn, Estonia
• 21-23 March 2025: World Cup - Lahti, Finland

* Race schedule is subject to change and may be affected by weather conditions. The updated calendar of events can be found on the FIS website here.

2024-25 Cross-Country World Cup – key skiers to watch out for

Jessie Diggins is the woman to beat in cross-country skiing, the two-time overall champion who is out to defend her title on the hills.

The American skier has won three Olympic medals in three different events, including a gold medal in the team sprint for USA at Pyeongchang 2018. With two World Championship golds also to her name, can she add a third World Cup title?

Sweden’s Linn Svahn and Jonna Sundling are among the top competitors for the women’s World Cup, while Victoria Carl of Germany recorded her first five career podiums last season.

The men’s World Cup was dominated by the Norwegian athletes last year, as Harald Østberg Amundsen won the overall, distance, and Tour de Ski titles.

You cannot talk about cross-country skiing without discussing seven-time Olympic champion Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, who prevailed in the sprint standings and will be aiming to win his fifth crystal globe and a 14^th World Cup title.

FIS Cross-Country World Cup 2024-25 – how to watch live

Eurosport hold the rights for the Cross-Country Skiing World Cup across Europe and Asia, while in the US it will be shown via Ski and Snowboard Live and on Viaplay in Norway.

Canadian fans can watch on CBC-SRC, and in Latin America, ESPN will broadcast the World Cup races.