World Championships in Cross-Country Skiing to Break the Glass Ceiling for Women's Events

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On September 12, 1982, during the European Athletics Championships in Athens, a historic moment for endurance sports occurred as Rosa Mota won the women’s marathon, which was included in the championship program for the first time.

A year later, in the first World Championships held in Helsinki, Grete Waitz from Norway won, making substantial contributions alongside her compatriot Ingrid Kristiansen to elevate the status of women’s marathon running globally throughout the 1980s.

The leap was significant economically and mentally, as the longest distance women could run in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow was only 1,500 meters.

Ingrid Kristiansen, who competed in the 1978 World Championships in Lahti, became a marathon superstar throughout the 1980s, while the longest race for women in skiing only lasted about an hour at international competitions.

On February 25 of that same year, the history was made as women were allowed to start in a 20-kilometer event for the first time in the World Championships.

Before and during the competition, speculation filled the air about how they would handle the challenges of this distance in the Salpausselkä terrain.

Amusing Reminiscence

Athlete Hilkka Riihivuori, who placed fourth in the new distance, recalls the atmosphere humorously.

"20 kilometers was nothing for us. I often skied 70 kilometers with Helena (Olympic champion Takalo) during early snow. Sometimes we even skied 100 kilometers."

Recalling the competition in Lahti in 1978, where Finland's 4x5 km relay team won gold, Riihivuori, now 72, still skis 50-km routes and remembers those days vividly.

In the following decades, the progress to a 50-kilometer race for women at the World Championships has finally turned a corner, with the race occurring for the first time at the Trondheim Championships on March 9, 2025, paving the way for what Therese Johaug hopes will be a historic win.

As per the announcement in 2022, the International Ski Federation aimed to standardize the race distances for both men and women.

A Perspective from a Physiologist

Esa Hynynen, a respected sports physiologist, is enthusiastic about the historical milestone, having spent over 30 years pushing endurance athletes to the limit.

Hynyn believes this change reflects a broader, overdue acknowledgment of women's abilities in endurance sports, supported by scientific research that shows women inherently possess more endurance muscle fibers than men do, which becomes increasingly beneficial as race lengths grow.