Despite record participation in this winter’s National Ski Championships, Norwegian cross-country skiing is plagued by ugly figures. “If this trend continues, we can expect to see Sweden dominate.”

The Swedes have every reason to celebrate, not only their results and podium places this winter, but also the development of cross-country skiing in recent years. In Norway, we can celebrate this winter’s results on the men’s side, but the trend in Norwegian cross-country skiing is going in completely the wrong direction.

Norway has never delivered a worse World Cup season on the women’s side than this winter. And Sweden has never done better.

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Cross-country skiing expert Petter Skinstad is sounding the alarm about the situation and developments in Norwegian cross-country skiing. He has seen the figures for the development in the number of members in the Norwegian and Swedish Ski Associations in the period 2015 to 2022.

“If this trend continues, we can expect to see Sweden dominate the World Cup, the Scandinavian Cup, the Junior and U23 World Championships as well as long-distance skiing, as Norway has done for the past 10-15 years,” he tells Expressen.

In concrete terms: What does it look like? 

For the Norwegian Ski Association, the statistics show a decline in the number of active athletes of 36 percent in the period 2015 to 2022: from 136,235 to 87,498.

In the Swedish Ski Association, the number of active athletes has grown by 37 percent in the same period: From 47,148 to 64,481.

Something interesting is also happening in Sweden in 2022: For the first time in history, there are more girls than boys participating in cross-country skiing in the 0-12 age group.

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“Unexpected”

The Swedes themselves are surprised when they see the statistics.

“This was a bit unexpected,” says Jonna Sundling.

Frida Karlsson says the same.

“It’s strange. A bit fascinating. But, as a Swede, it’s very cool,” she says.

They are proud of the fact that they themselves are role models who encourage children and young people to choose cross-country skiing.

“It feels a bit cool to be able to inspire others,” says Sundling.

They believe that part of the reason why recruitment is falling in Norway is that Norway is now at the top of the world in many other sports.

“I think many other sports in Norway have taken off. They have become much better in football, golf, tennis and so on. I think the offerings in the sports that are “in” have simply become much larger,” says Moa Ilar.

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Why is this happening?

One explanation is that children and young people have more and different options now than before. Cross-country skiing competes with other sports, but also unorganized activities and screen-based activities.

But according to Skinstad, the development may be partly due to the fact that Norwegian children and young people lack engaging role models. He believes that today’s stars and role models lack the brilliance of their predecessors.

“There’s a big difference from the era of Petter Northug, Marit Bjørgen, Therese Johaug and Martin Johnsrud Sundby. Back then, cross-country skiing was on everyone’s lips, and the country came to a standstill when there were championships,” says Skinstad, and continues:

“We don’t see that interest now. Today’s Norwegian profiles aren’t exciting enough, extreme enough, fun enough or engaging in the same way.

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What is the Norwegian Ski Association doing?

The Norwegian Ski Association is aware of the development. 

“We will of course work to turn these figures around,” Brit Baldishol, Head of Development at the Norwegian Ski Association, told Expressen.

She believes that part of the explanation has to do with registration: The Swedish Ski Association has tightened the requirements for who they count as active.

“Previously, people who were more involved in the organization could be included, such as parents and volunteers who fry waffles at ski races,” she says.

Baldishol also believes that people are more reluctant to volunteer.

“There’s no doubt that we have an enormous breadth. We have figures showing that 1.8 million Norwegians use skiing as a leisure activity or training. So, our recruitment base is very large, but many people choose not to join a ski club. That’s something we’re working to change,” she says.

Baldishol sees a trend in people paying to take a ski course rather than joining a club to get better at skiing, which she believes they could also get through a club. She fears that people are reluctant to join clubs because they don’t want to volunteer.

“It’s easier to pay for a course instead,” she says.

Junior national team coach: “Good and stable recruitment”

But not everyone sees the situation as all doom and gloom.

Junior national team coach Kristian Dahl is not experiencing a crisis in youth recruitment. He has many years of experience from skiing high schools and working at regional and district level in Trøndelag before that and reports good and stable recruitment to the sport.

“It’s been relatively stable for a long time,” he tells Langrenn.com.

This winter, a record number of people took part in the National Ski Championships: In total, around 1,100 runners registered for the second part of the championships in Lillehammer from March 20 to 23. Never before have there been more participants in a skiing championship. There were 348 racers in the women’s 5-kilometer race, while there were 481 racers in the men’s 10-kilometer race.

In comparison, 68 women and 112 men competed in the same event at the Swedish championships, which were held the week after the Norwegian championships.

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