I'm watching the olympic women's 10km race live right now and noticed how it's a staggered start, which makes things less intense and a bit more confusing in my opinion. Are all the XC ski races like this, and if so, why?
I'm watching the olympic women's 10km race live right now and noticed how it's a staggered start, which makes things less intense and a bit more confusing in my opinion. Are all the XC ski races like this, and if so, why?
Most are staggered start, though the 30km and 50km are mass start. Staggered starts are safer and make more sense historically with the track for classic style...
It would be chaos to start everyone like an xc running race. Everyone would be competing for the same handful of classic tracks. One person goes down and a tangled domino effect ensues, spreads like wildfire. Poles have metal tips and such, so it could easily pierce the suits or the skin.
Traditionally, cross country ski races were individual start (from high school/junior Olympics, college, national, to world cup), but mass participation races were and still are mass start.
In the '90s they started having pursuit starts on the second day of classic/freestyle (skate) pursuit races, where the first day was individual start classic, and then the second day pursuit freestyle where the skiers are started according to how well they did the first day, and how they finish the second day representative of the combined classic+free time. They now usually run that continuously as a skiathlon with a technique and equipment change at the halfway point with the clock running. A bit later (2002 was the first Olympic sprint), sprint events started, where the qualifer is individual start, and the heats head-to-head. They also started doing mass starts for about half the distance events starting about then.
You have most of your answers already, OP, but it depends on the level of skiing and type of race. Most citizens races (equivalent to a road race, from 5K to 50K+) are mass start.
Qualifying, higher level racing (say NCAA), World Cup, and championship racing are usually a mix of mass start and individual. The races are often in a series (paired races for a qualifying). So on a weekend day 1 will often be an interval start (they don't call it staggered), day 2 mass start, with start position based on seeding. Championships (from junior level racing to the Olympics) are often a series of several races (NCAAs are only 2, interval start on Thursday, mass start on Saturday), and there will be a mix. The shorter races, say 5K to 15K, are often interval start, longer races 20K and up mass start.