Sports have to have an equal number of events for men and women, or they are in big trouble. In cross-country skiing, men and women are competing across equal distances at these Olympics. “I think it’s more equal (with men skiing longer distances),” Karoline Offigstad Knotten of Norway said last week. When FIS voted three years ago to equalize cross-country distances, 57 percent of delegates favored the move, while 36 percent opposed it and the rest abstained. There were questions about how women racing for longer periods might affect television coverage.

Source: International New York Times February 19, 2026 22:05 UTC