The 44th Nordic Skiing World Championships will be held in the Norwegian city of Trondheim from 26 February to 9 March 2025. This is the second time the World Championships are held in Trondheim, as the 30th Championships in 1997 were also held in the city.
It is the 6th time the Nordic Skiing Championships are held in Norway, as the Championships in 1930, 1966, 1982 and 2011 were held in Oslo.
Trondheim is located in Trøndelag in central Norway. It has roots dating back more than 1000 years and is one of Norway's oldest cities. With more than 200.000 inhabitants, it is Norway's third largest city.
All competitions in the championships will be held in the impressive winter sports area Granåsen Ski Centre [1].
Nordic skiing includes the sports cross-country skiing, ski jumping and nordic combined (a combination of cross-country skiing and ski jumping). The World Ski Championships in nordic skiing are organized by the International Ski Federation (FIS).
History of the Nordic Skiing World Championships
In the winter of 1924 an international ski week was held in the French resort Chamonix. This was such a great success that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) subsequently appointed the event to be the first official Olympic Winter Games. The IOC also decided to arrange Olympic Winter Games every four years, next time in 1928.
Similarly FIS decided that the relevant disciplines from the Winter Games in Chamonix should be recognized as the World Championships in Nordic skiing. FIS also decided that the Olympic Winter Games in the future should be recognized as World Championships for the Nordic ski disciplines. This was the situation up to and including 1984.
In the period up to 1952 the World Championships was for men only, but from 1954 the Nordic World Championships were opened for women’s participation.
After 1924 the World Championships were held every year up to and including 1939. After the World Championships in 1939 World War II led to a break in the events until 1948, when the Olympic Winter Games were reinstated in St. Moritz. From 1948 until (and including) 1984, World Championships were held every two years, which meant that every second event was identical to the Olympic Winter Games.
In 1985 the World Championships were held in Seefeld in Austria, and after this year the World Championships in Nordic skiing have been held every two years in the odd years. From 1985 and onwards the World Championships have been a completely separated event from the competitions in the Olympic Winter Games.
Developments in the Nordic Skiing Programme
The Nordic Skiing World Championships have been extended over the years from only four events at the first championships to 25 events at the upcoming Trondheim 2025 championships.
Here are some notable points in the development [2]:
- In 1954, women's competitions were included for the first time. In Trondheim 2025, there will be 12 competitions for men and 11 for women.
- In 1982, team competitions were introduced in ski jumping and nordic combined for men. In cross country, team competitions had been on the program since the 1930s.
- In 2001, sprint competitions were introduced in cross country for both women and men. In 2005, these were supplemented with team sprint events.
- In 2009, there was a competition for women in ski jumping from a normal hill for the first time. From 2021, there was also ski jumping from a large hill for women.
- Mixed team competitions were introduced in 2013 in ski jumping and in 2023 in nordic combined.
- In 2021, there were competitions for women in nordic combined for the first time.
At the Trondheim 2025 championships, a balance between the competitions for women and men has been aimed for. This balance has been fully implemented for cross country and ski jumping. For example, the longest distance in cross country is now 50 km for both women and men.
Winter Olympic Games as part of the World Championships
As mentioned above, the Olympic Winter Games in the period from 1924-84 were also recognized as World Championships for (most of) the nordic ski disciplines. At the medal ceremonies for the Olympic Winter Games, World Championship medals were also awarded, in addition to the Olympic medals. However, this official status of also being a World Championship event was only followed for events in cross country skiing and ski jumping - it was not the case for nordic combined events. Only once, in the Olympic Winter Games in 1984, all three nordic ski sports (cross country, nordic combined and ski jumping) were recognized as also being World Championships.
In our lists of champions, medal standings etc. we have followed the above outline of which events count as World Championship events. There is some disagreement about this but by using the above mentioned events we align our data with the official FIS database and their general outline of World Championship history.
All competitions in the championships will be held in the impressive winter sports area Granåsen Ski Centre. |