Finlandia-hiihto becomes an international skiing event

Worldloppet, The International Cross-country Skiing Federation, was founded in 1978. The Finlandia-hiihto organisation was one of the founding members.

Finlandia-hiihto entered the Guinness Book of Records in 1984 as the world’s largest mass skiing event – nearly 13,000 skiers participated. The organisers even ran out of the participation medals awarded to the skiers.

Finlandia-hiihto was shown for the first time on Eurosport in 1998. Later, in 2011, when Finlandia-hiihto became part of the FIS Cross-Country Distance World Cup, it became a competitive event among other skiing competitions.

Now in the 2020s, the number of participants has stabilised at 4,000–5,000 skiers, who come from an average of 30 countries. A number of foreign skiers tour the mass skiing events one after the other: from the Tartu Marathon in Estonia to Finlandia-hiihto and continuing from Lahti to Vasaloppet.