cross-country skiing

Four World Cup gold medals — and a baby

Marit Bjørgen was a world-class athlete at the top of her career — and then she decided to have a baby. How did that change her ability to train — and her performance afterwards?

Proper poling technique can decide Olympic winners

Jørgen Danielsen is writing Norway’s first doctoral dissertation on poling in cross-country skiing. Several of the athletes he studied are participating in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games.

Researchers are helping elite skiers to hone their performance

Norwegian cross-country skiing is applying science to analyse how its elite athletes exploit their strengths during training and competition. The aims of this sensor-based research are to give skiers valuable advice about training and help them find the perfect pair of skis.

Do elite sports promote doping?

The pursuit by elite sports of media — and the public’s — attention generates hardcore competition that even highly trained bodies can barely handle. Some athletes find doping to be their only recourse.

Poling to victory

Female cross-country skiers who want to excel would do well to be inspired by Marit Bjørgen’s muscular upper body. Poling power appears to be a decisive factor in distinguishing the best cross-country skiers in the world from the rest.