Crosscountry-Skiers bemoan anemic field in men's relay as quota system sidelines racers
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics - Cross-Country Skiing - Men's 4 x 7.5km Relay - Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium, Lago, Italy - February 15, 2026. Athletes in action during the Men's 4 x 7.5km Relay REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
TESERO, Italy, Feb 15 : Cross-country skiers on Sunday lamented the small field for the men's relay after Olympic qualification guidelines aimed at getting more small nations into the Games left competitive racers out in the cold.
Only 10 teams lined up for the men's relay, with countries like Britain, Estonia and Austria notably missing. The competition involves two classic-style legs and two freestyle segments, and requires four racers.
The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) introduced qualification races for the Milano Cortina Games, following the adoption of an International Olympic Committee principle aimed at boosting equality and access to the Games.
FIS acknowledged that while the quota was unchanged from four years ago at 148 women and 148 men, the increase in opportunities for smaller nations did impact larger countries, with some not achieving a quota of four or more athletes needed to build relay teams. Teams do have the opportunity to add racers from biathlon or Nordic combined disciplines, however.
“What we can ensure is that FIS, in cooperation with the IOC, closely monitors the impact of the qualification criteria and always works to improve them as needed from one edition of the Games to the next. We will consider the developments in each discipline to keep striving for both universality and fairness,” FIS said in a statement.
"I think we would have been able to fight for a top six position," Jostein Vinjerui, a coach for Britain, told Reuters. He found out in January, however, that the team would not have enough to field a team for the relay.
U.S. skier Ben Ogden, silver medallist in the men's classic sprint, said: "It’s cool the IOC wants to grow the sport and get more countries here, but it’s a shame a good skiing country like Austria, the Brits and others can’t start a team."
France's Theo Schely added: "It's a disappointment to have to just 10 teams. We could be like the girls yesterday - 20 teams is better."
The women's relay a day earlier had 19 teams competing, with Norway winning following crashes by gold-medal favourites Sweden.
"It did even shock me a little bit how few teams there were looking at the start," said Canadian cross-country skier Xavier McKeever.
"Individually there are a lot of good skiers from the smaller nations, it’s within reach for the relay squads to get bigger again – maybe some nations don’t have the depth but there is super high quality and the top of the sport is high as it's ever been."
