On Friday, the FIS autumn meeting in Zurich decided that Holmenkollen will host four World Cup races this coming winter. There will be two races for women and two for men, and all the races will take place during the weekend of March 15-16, 2025. This will be less than a week after the World Championships in Trondheim conclude.

“This will be very exciting and great athletically for many Norwegian athletes, with both 20km and 10km distances. Here, we will have a national quota that gets to compete with the medal winners from the World Championships in Trondheim,” says national team manager Ulf Morten Aune, who sits on the World Cup committee in FIS, in a press release.

Both days will feature distance races. This has been hinted at since the FIS spring meeting, but on Friday, the distances and formats were finally confirmed. It is now clear that Saturday’s distance will be a 20km classic with an individual start, while Sunday will feature a 10km freestyle race.

The organizers themselves are also very pleased with the FIS decision.

“Now the World Championship heroes will come directly to Holmenkollen from Granåsen, and the public can meet the newly crowned world champions up close at our World Championship arena from 2011. We are very happy that we managed to include the 20km distance on Saturday. In a short time, we will provide the final details for the Kollen program,” says Holmenkollen Ski Festival managing director Stefan Marx.

See also: 2024/25 cross-country skiing World Cup calendar

Moving the 50km race to Finland

At the FIS spring meeting, it was decided that Holmenkollen will not host the traditional 50km race this season, for the first time in 40 years.

This season, the 50km race will be “moved” to Lahti, Finland, and will take place two weeks after the 50km race at the World Championships in Trondheim.

However, it is confirmed that the traditional race in Holmenkollen will return to the schedule in the 2025/26 season.

In addition to the double World Cup round in Holmenkollen, Norway will also host a World Cup in Lillehammer from December 6-8. The program includes a 10km freestyle interval start, a skate sprint, and a 20km skiathlon.

The FIS meeting also decided that the canceled World Cup round in the Czech Republic at the end of January/beginning of February will instead be held in Italy. Sweden was also interested in taking over this race weekend, but FIS went with Italy’s application.

Additionally, the format for the 20km race during the World Cup in Engadin on January 26 has been changed from an individual start to a mass start.

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