Such races occur over homologated, groomed courses designed to support classic (in-track) and freestyle events, where the skiers may employ skate skiing.

The organization of cross-country ski competitions aims to make those events accessible both to spectators and television audiences.

[3] In Norwegian, langrenn refers to "competitive skiing where the goal is to complete a specific distance in pre-set tracks in the shortest possible time".

At the first German ski championship, held at the Feldberg in the Black Forest in 1900, the Norwegian Bjarne Nilssen won the 23 km cross-country race and was observed using a skating motion while skiing—a technique unknown to the spectators.

[11] Skating is most effective on wide, smooth, groomed trails, using fiberglass skis that glide well; it also benefits a stronger athlete—which, according to Olav Bø, are the reasons that the technique made a breakthrough in the early 1980s.

For example, at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, the 15 km men's individual race was a skate skiing event.

[13] The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships have been held in various numbers and types of events since 1925 for men and since 1954 for women.

[20] The World Ski Orienteering Championships is organized every odd year and includes sprint, middle and long distance competitions, and a Relay for both men and women.

For each shooting round, the biathlete must hit five targets; the skier receives a penalty for each missed target, which varies according to the competition rules; in any given competition one of the following penalties would apply:[21] Paralympic cross-country skiing is an adaptation of cross-country skiing for athletes with disabilities.

These are divided into several categories for people who are missing limbs, have amputations, are blind, or have any other physical disability, to continue their sport.

Classic events occur on courses with tracks set by a grooming machine at precise intervals and with carefully planned curvature.

In the lowest gear (rarely used in racing), one is poling on the side of the sliding ski, similar to diagonal stride.

Countries with cross-country ski teams usually have a strategy for developing promising athletes and programs to encourage participation in the sport, starting at a young age.

[27] The program encompasses youth development, training, introduction to competition and improvement of promising athletes with an emphasis on "stamina (endurance), strength, speed, skill and suppleness (flexibility)".

The program encompasses six "domains:"[26] Ski training for the athlete depends on whether the desired specialty emphasizes endurance (marathon) or intensity (mid-distance events).

The "intensity" theory of ski training uses stress to break down muscles and recovery to build them up stronger than before.

[30] Additional aspects of training address aerobic (low-intensity) exercise—especially for endurance—and strength to improve joint flexibility and to minimize the risk of injury.

An important aspect of race preparation is grooming the course to provide a surface for skate-skiing and setting tracks for classic events.

Also key is the layout of grooming and track setting in the stadium with various formats for starts, finishes and intermediate functions for relays and pursuits.

The manual includes considerations of:[35] A course is expected to test the skier's technical and physical abilities, to be laid out in a manner that takes advantage of the natural terrain, and to provide smooth transitions among uphills, downhills and "undulating" terrain—distributed approximately evenly among the three.

The manual advocates that courses present a variety of uphills, varying in lengths and gradients between 6% and 12%, which are arrayed efficiently within the venue.

It emphasizes the importance of accommodating television coverage at the start, finish, and exchange zones for equipment or relays.

The FIS claims to be compiling data on the comparative frequency and severity of falls, but wasn't sharing the information, as of January 2022.

[37] Anti-doping tests at the 2001 World Nordic skiing championships in Lahti, Finland revealed that Jari Isometsä, Janne Immonen and two other skiers from Finland's gold-medal relay team, Mika Myllylä and Harri Kirvesniemi, and two female skiers tested positive for hydroxyethyl starch (HES), a blood plasma expander usually used to cover up the use of erythropoietin (EPO).

In addition, the team head coach left needles and drip bags at a public location near the Helsinki airport.

[38] At the Sochi Winter Olympic Games, Austrian cross-country skier Johannes Dürr was ejected from competition after testing positive for the blood booster EPO.