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

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.