Events
Olympic Games in the US
The US has hosted the Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, NY in 1932 and 1980, in Squaw Valley, CA in 1960, and in Salt Lake CIty, UT in 2002. Denver, CO, was to have hosted the 1976 Olympic Games, but relinquished the right to hold the ’76 Games by public referendum.
World Championships
The FIS World Nordic Ski Championships have only been held in the USA on one occasion: 1950. The event was scheduled for Lake Placid, NY. The jumping events were held in Lake Placid, but due to a shortage of snow, the cross country events were held in Rumford, Maine.
Here’s a link to Wikipedia’s article on the 1950 World Nordic Ski Championships
Junior/U23 World Championships
The FIS Junior and U23 World Championships were hosted at Soldier Hollow in Midway, UT in 2017
U23 World Championships
Originally, the U23 World Championships were held separately from the Junior World Championships. Soldier Hollow in Midway, UT hosted the 20xx championships.
World Cup
The USA has hosted a small number of FIS Cross Country World Cup races since the inception of the World Cup in the mid-to-late 1970’s. These include:
- Telemark, WI 1978?
- Lake Placid, NY 1979 (Olympic pre-Games)
- Anchorage, AK 1983
- Fairbanks, AK 1984 (men only)
- Mountain Dell, UT 1989
- Soldier Hollow, UT 2001 (Olympic pre-Games)
- Minneapolis, MN 2020 (cancelled due to coronavirus)
On our World Cup page will be further information on each of these events and links to pertinent content.
US Ski and Snowboard National Championships
The US Ski and Snowboard Cross Country Skiing Championships are held annually. The dates for these championships have migrated periodically around the calendar, from the New Year’s holiday period to late spring to late-January. For the past several years they have taken place in early January.
These races are the premiere domestic competitions for US Skiers. In many years (but not always) they have served as selection races for Olympic, World Championship and World Cup teams, as well as for teams to the Junior World Championships and U18 Scandinavian Cup events. In some years they served to select the US Team to the World University Games.
CLICK HERE to go to our US Ski and Snowboard National Championships page.
USSS Junior National Championships
The US Ski and Snowboard Junior National Championships are held every year in March. Prior to the 1980’s the championships “mostly” rotated through the eight divisions of the US Ski Association (precursor of USSS). Those divisions were Eastern (now the New England and Mid-Atlantic districts), Central (now Midwest and Great Lakes districts), Rocky Mountain, Northern, Intermountain (now Northern/Intermountain division and High Plains district), Far West, Pacific Northwest and Alaska.
During the 80’s the rotation changed to a four-region rotation: East, Central, West (Rocky Mt., Northern/Intermountain, Far West, Pacific Northwest) and Alaska. In the 2000’s that changed to a five-region rotation, with the West region splitting into two sub-regions (Rocky Mt., Northern/Intermountain as one region, Pacific Northwest and Far West as the other western region.
Competition takes place in three age classes: U20, U18 and U16. The current program includes a sprint, a mass start, an interval start and a relay. Techniques in each format alternate from year to year. Distances are age-appropriate and vary by age class.
CLICK HERE to go to our USSS Junior National Championships page.