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For the Olympic sport: nordic skiing -How many athletes are there? How many people watch it during the Olympics and after the Olympics? How many events are there per year?
Hello! Thank you for your question about the magnitude of the Nordic skiing sport. The short answer is there are 310 athletes at the Olympic level from 54 federations, and there are 10,475 active competitive cross-country skiers across the globe. During the Olympics at least 4 million watch this sport, and 1.3 million watch after the Olympics on an annual basis. There are 8 main international Nordic skiing events, 7 per year and the 8th being the Winter Olympics.
Below you will find a detailed dive of my findings.
METHODOLOGY
I began by identifying the main international governing bodies of Nordic, also called cross-country, skiing both with the Olympics and beyond. This yielded a separation between Nordic skiing events to gain a comprehensive understanding of the sport. From the Olympic list of events, I focused on distance cross-country skiing and the biathlon. I did not include the Nordic Combined events (ski jumping+ cross-country skiing) as the ski authorities recognize them as separate sporting disciplines. Then, I investigated individual countries to find how popular the sport was in that region, and assess the number of athletes in the sport. The international federations typically listed what events they sponsored at the international level as well.
The FIS has a list of cross-country athletes, but beyond that the only lists come from national teams websites- if they have one. I researched, where available, the athlete rosters of international skiing competitions. When possible, I cross-referenced the athletes by country to their national federation rosters to avoid double counting when I calculated the approximate number of athletes. I included the number of athletes on a few national teams to show how competitive this sport is around the world.
The viewership numbers included coverage of the international world cups and championships, not the Olympics. For the 2014 Olympic games, I could find only general figures and viewing numbers where cross-country skiing is most popular- Sweden and Norway.
SKIING FEDERATIONS
The main governing body, and the one that sets competition rules, is the International Ski Federation (FIS). It governs 6 snow events, including Nordic skiing. There are 128 member nations, a list of which can be seen here. The FIS president is Gian-Franco Kasper. The FIS oversees skiing competition rules, Olympic rankings, and also international events such as the Nordic World Ski Championship.
The Worldloppet Ski Federation is a ski racing federation that offers the Ski Classics each year, 20 races across the calendar. It focuses only on cross-country marathon races. There are 16 full members, 4 affiliate members. The president is Juha Viljamaa.
The International Biathlon Union is the overseer of international biathlon (combining distance cross-country skiing with rifle target shooting). This organization regulates the Biathlon World Championship and the Biathlon World Cup. It has 56 federation members, listed here. The president is Anders Besseberg.
USA Ski Team and Team USA are the governing bodies for American skiers, classic and biathlon respectively. The national teams that attend championships and the Olympics are selected by these committees.
ATHLETE NUMBERS
The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia had 310 cross-country skiers from 54 nations. The FIS has 10,475 active registered cross-country ski athletes from its 128 member nations.
For a team by team basis, I have detailed below the number that attended the Tour de Ski competition, and the number on a selection of countries' rosters to give perspective in nations where skiing is very popular and where it is less well-known.
Russia: 15
Switzerland: 14
Germany: 13
Finland: 13
Sweden: 12
Norway: 13
France: 6
National Teams:
EVENTS
Below is a list of international Nordic skiing competitions separated by classic and biathlon with the parent federation noted.
Nordic:
Biathlon:
VIEWING STATISTICS
The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi had a general viewership of 21.4 million. This is a decrease from the 2010 Olympics, though better than the 2006 games. During the Olympics in 2014, Nordic skiing had 1.6 million viewers in Norway and 2.4 million in Sweden alone. There were no numbers on viewership beyond these countries, though it is a safe assumption to believe the sport saw at least 5 million total.
Beyond the Olympics, NBC has announced that it will augment its international skiing coverage for FIS World Cups and the Tour de Ski to meet market demand.
FIS has reported that in the 2011 world skiing season, the Nordic events were seen by "almost 1.1 billion people worldwide". Almost a third of this (367 million) is for the Tour de Ski competition. The overall broadcasting numbers for the sport of cross-country skiing saw a rise of almost 25% since 2000.
During the 2013 skiing season, FIHS reported that 14% of its broadcasting time (7,500 hours) on networks such as Eurosport and NBC were dedicated to cross-country skiing events, accounting for 1.3 million viewers (this is only for the World Championship and World Cup).
CONCLUSIONS
The sport of cross-country skiing at the Olympic level has approximately 300 athletes representing 54 countries. The International Ski Federation has 128 members and oversees many international Nordic skiing competitions beyond the Olympics. The FIS has 10,475 active cross-country skiing athletes registered from around the world. The viewing base for this sport is growing, and counts in the millions each season and Olympic games worldwide.
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