The 90 km (56 mi) course starts in the village of Berga, just south of Sälen in western Dalarna, Sweden, and ends in the town of Mora in the central part of the province.

The race was inspired by a notable journey King Gustav Vasa made from Mora to Sälen when he was fleeing from Christian II's soldiers during the winter of 1520–1521 in the beginning of the Swedish War of Liberation.

In 1520, the young nobleman Gustav Ericsson Vasa was fleeing from the troops of Christian II, king of Denmark, Sweden and Norway (the Kalmar Union).

He spoke to the men of Mora at a gathering and tried to convince them to raise a levy and start a rebellion against King Christian.

However, the men in Mora changed their minds after hearing that the Danish rulers had decided to raise taxes, and now they wanted to join the rebellion with Gustav as their leader.

[1] The idea for the race was published in Westmanlands Läns Tidning on 10 February 1922 by Anders Pers from Mora.

Falu Kuriren wrote about the event: "... an incredible ovation greeted the only lady competitor, Miss Margit Nordin.

A majority of officials, mostly male, within sports organizations as well as in society in general, were opposed to women in the race.

[9] Two of the women who disguised themselves in 1978, Birgitta Westhed and Britt Dohsé, were assisted by professional make-up artist from the Gothenburg City Theatre, who changed their looks using wigs, moustache and a full beard.

[10] Westhed was interviewed by TV during the race, which put women's participation higher on the media agenda.

The motto of Vasaloppet I fäders spår för framtids segrar ('In [our] fathers' tracks for future victories') is written on a portal erected over the finish line in Mora.

At the first race, the finish line was simply marked with white board between two flag poles with the word Mål ('Finish') on it.

This is a woman who is given the honor of hanging a laurel victory wreath around the neck of the winner of the race as he crosses the finish line.

[22] The ropes in Vasaloppet are drawn at seven of the stations: Smågan, Mångsbodarna, Risberg, Evertsberg, Oxberg, Hökberg and Eldris.

Daniel Tynell won the race, just ahead of Jerry Ahrlin, while Anders Aukland – who has skied on both the Norwegian national World Cup team and in marathons like the Vasaloppet – finished third.

Marit Bjørgen from Norway won, though the field included only World Cup racers, since the marathon specialists chose to race in the full-distance event the next day.

Janne Stefansson (7), Jan Ottosson (4), Arthur Häggblad (4), Bengt Hassis (3), Oskar Svärd (3), Daniel Tynell, Jörgen Brink (3) and John Kristian Dahl (3) are the only other racers with more than two titles.

Two countries have produced two winners: Finland (Pekka Kuvaja, 1954; Pauli Siitonen, 1973) and Austria (Walter Mayer, 1980; Mikhail Botvinov, 1997).

Five countries have produced one winner: East Germany (Gert-Dietmar Klause, 1975), the Soviet Union (Ivan Garanin, 1977), France (Jean-Paul Pierrat, 1978), Switzerland (Konrad Hallenbarter, 1983), and Estonia (Raul Olle, 2000).