The Russians Are the Fastest in Marathon Cross-Country Skiing: The “Engadin Ski Marathon”

Abstract

It is well known that athletes from a specific region or country are dominating certain sports disciplines such as marathon running or Ironman triathlon; however, little relevant information exists on cross-country skiing. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the aspect of region and nationality in one of the largest cross-country skiing marathons in Europe, the “Engadin Ski Marathon.” All athletes (n = 197,125) who finished the “Engadin Ski Marathon” between 1998 and 2016 were considered. More than two-thirds of the finishers (72.5% in women and 69.6% in men) were Swiss skiers, followed by German, Italian, and French athletes in both sexes. Most of the Swiss finishers were from Canton of Zurich (20.5%), Grisons (19.2%), and Berne (10.3%). Regarding performance, the Russians were the fastest and the British the slowest. Considering local athletes, finishers from Canton of Uri and Glarus were the fastest and those from Canton of Geneva and Basel the slowest. Based on the findings of the present study, it was concluded that local athletes were not the fastest in the “Engadin Ski Marathon.” Future studies need to investigate other cross-country skiing races in order to find the nationalities and regions of the fastest cross-country skiers.

Russians are the fastest and the youngest in the “Comrades Marathon”

“…lowest in athletes from Russia to highest in athletes from Lesotho). This finding confirmed previous research in cross-country skiing about the variation of participation rates of women and men by nationality, where the MWR ranged from 2.85 (British) to 7.48 (Italians) (Nikolaidis, Heller, et al, 2017). The MWR is an index of great practical value as it has been shown to associate with sex difference in performance (Hunter & Stevens, 2013), i.e.…”

“…Regarding performance and age, women and men from Russia were the fastest although they were only on 11 th position in men and 10 th in women regarding participation. Considering age, female and male skiers from Russia were the third youngest (Nikolaidis, Heller, & Knechtle, 2017). A potential explanation that female and male athletes from Russia are the youngest and the fastest in both the 'Engadin Ski Marathon' and the 'Comrades Marathon' although they do not represent the nation with the highest participation could be that only the best athletes travel abroad from Russia for these specific races.…”

The Role of Nationality in Ultra-Endurance Sports: The Paradigm of Cross-Country Skiing and Long-Distance Running

“…Recent studies have shown that Russian athletes dominate specific sports disciplines such as cross-country skiing (e.g., Engadin Ski Marathon, Vasaloppet) [1,2] and long-distance running (e.g., Comrades Marathon, 100-km ultra-marathons) [3,4]. These findings appeared to qualify for further investigation since in all data analyses always all finishers and-when possible-all years of all editions of these events were considered.…”

“…Recent studies have reported that Russian athletes were the fastest in two cross-country skiing races, the 'Engadin Ski Marathon' held in Switzerland [2] and the 'Vasaloppet' held in Sweden [15] ( Table 1). Like the fastest marathoners in the world (i.e., Ethiopians and Kenyans), the fastest cross-country skiers also showed the most even pacing.…”

“…This assumption might also explain why Russian athletes were the fastest runners in the 'Comrades Marathon' (South Africa) [3] and the fastest cross-country skiers in both the 'Engadin Ski Marathon' (Switzerland) [2] and the 'Vasaloppet' (Sweden) [15] although in all these races local athletes represented the highest numbers in participants. Also, in running races of 100 miles, a dominance of a specific nation has been reported.…”