More skis than you can shake a pole at. It's Cross Country Skiing and the Nordic Combined. Both events coming up in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, so we're taking an extended look at its history and top winners.

Where/When did it start

Cross Country began in 1924 with women starting in 1952

Nordic countries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_countries

Different than Scandanavia

How do you win?

Cross Country Skiing: Have the fastest time

Hill split into 3 equal parts of uphill, downhill and flat

Events

Mens

CC: Men's 15km Free, 15km + 15km Skiathlon, Sprint Classic, Team Sprint Free, 50km Mass Start Classic, 4 x 10km Relay

Nordic: Individual Gundersen NH/10km, Individual Gundersen LH/10km, Team Gundersen LH/4x5km

Womens

CC: Ladies' 10km Free, 7.5km + 7.5km Skiathlon, Sprint Classic, Team Sprint Free, 30km Mass Start Classic, 4 x 5km Relay

Nordic: Not in this Olympics but coming in 2022, just started ski jumping in 2014

Men thought their uteruses would fall out

Great piece from Deadspin on the history and sexism behind women in ski jumping: https://deadspin.com/why-it-took-90-years-for-womens-ski-jumping-to-make-the-1520520342

Events

Individual - Staggered starts

Skiathlon - Everyone starts at the same time

First half classic technique, second half skate skiing technique

Classic - more similar to walking

Skate Skiing - looks a lot like the speed skating start that you see. Push outwards.

Sprint

Shorter distance

Team Sprint

Short distance with two athletes alternating legs

Mass Start

Everyone starts together in one big ol race

Relay

Four athletes per team

First two classic, last two skate skiing

Nordic Combined

Ski Jump first, best time gets to start the cross country with competitors starting 4 extra seconds for each point behind they were

Team

5km at a time, best team finish in the Ski Jump starts, followed 1.333seconds behind

Best Known for the sport

Nordic

Norway 13/30, Finland 4/14, Austria 3/13....US (9th) ¼

Norway swept the first 4 Olympics

Cross Country

Norway 40/107, Sweden 29/74, Soviet Union 25/68, Finland 20/76, US 1 silver only (Bill Koch 1976)

Fun Facts

US has a pair of brothers competing, Bryan and Taylor Fletcher, both of whom have been skiing since Age 4

The word “ski” is a Norwegian word which comes from the Old Norse word “skid”, a split length of wood.

Most Famous

Felix Gottwald of Austria - 3 gold medals, 7 total

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIER PHILIP BOIT MADE HISTORY WHEN HE BECAME THE FIRST KENYAN TO COMPETE AT THE OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES, RACING IN THE 10KM CLASSIC EVENT AT NAGANO 1998. DESPITE COMING LAST, HE WAS ENTHUSIASTICALLY EMBRACED BY THE WINNER, NORWEGIAN BJORN DAEHLIE. IT WAS A MOMENT THAT MARKED THE START OF A LASTING FRIENDSHIP.

In the 10km classic cross-country skiing, Boit came in 92nd and last place.

With a time of 47:25, next closest 39:39

5 athletes did not finish, so Boit was not dead last