Attendance of more than 100 000 spectators right now at World XC skiing men 50 K in Trondheim Norway

Link?

I’m watching the Viasat broadcast

Yes, and we have our own professional cycling team participating in Tour de France as well as some of the worlds best speed skaters, runners, biatheles, nordic combined and triathletes. We are lucky

Watch out where spectators go,
and don't you eat that yellow snow
Watch out where spectators go,
and don't you eat that yellow snow

Strictly Norwegian,

I see that Jessie Diggins is still doing her thang:

kpcw.org

Diggins, Kern earn historic U.S. finish at Nordic world champs

https://www.kpcw.org/people/sydney-weaver

American cross country skiers Jessie Diggins and Julia Kern secured a silver medal in the classic team sprint at the 2025 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Norway Wednesday.

Open link

I think you need to understand Norway and what else is there to do... Kilian explains it well why he moved there, "nor the earth shifts, nor people move, a place of solitude."

Want to have a crazy fun time at a sporting event? Go to a Belgian or Dutch cyclocross event! It’s a non-stop party with throngs of passionate fans. I find cycling and soccer crowds to be far more fun than track fans, especially in the US.

Hanging out with a bunch of drunks is crazy fun? You would have loved attending major team sports in the ‘70s, lots of fistfights and people rudely puking nearby.

I’ll always have a couple of beers at baseball games, but track requires a little more concentration so I have no interest in drinking during the meet and if I really want drink, I can always go to a bar.

Even made the front page on ESPN:

Fans began to queue up in the early morning as a crowd estimated by media at more than 100,000 filled the stands and lined the course, creating a carnival atmosphere for one of the classic races in a sport that is followed fanatically in Norway.

espn.com

Klaebo notches first six-gold cross-country sweep

Norway's Johannes Hoesfolt Klaebo completing an unprecedented sweep by winning all six golds at the cross-country world championships.

Open link

Yeah, everyone needs to experience a cyclocross race in Netherlands or Belgium once in their life. Imagine a college football tailgate with an eight lap cross country meet running through it. Just make sure not to wear nice shoes, the mud is usually up to your ankles by the end.

At the same time in ski jumping, the Norwegian silver medalist and two other Norwegian athletes were caught cheating with their suits, resulting in disqualification and the loss of the silver medal. It just goes to show that Norway and doing whatever it takes to succeed go hand in hand.

Is it free to attend other than the stands?

One great thing that XC skiing has against track is that they race A LOT on the circuit. Some of this is out of our control because running just is a lot more impact on your body than skiing, so skiers can train and race more often. But another great aspect of XC skiing is that they don't care about time! Yes, they have different race formats, including individual starts and sprint qualifiers, where you advance and place based on your time that day, but I love that there are no records and no time comparisons! The course, the snow, and the skis (which makes a much bigger impact on performance than shoes) are all different every time out. So the narrative at each race on the circuit is simple and strong: who is the fastest that day. This is where I think track can take a page out of skiing's book, with less record obsession.

Yes. I heard it was 130,000 people in watching it in total

and Beserkers on mushrooms.

I attended a Biathlon World Cup event in Germany last year, and was put off by the excessive drinking going on. While I enjoy having a few drinks myself, many fans were absolutely piss drunk. The only ones I saw puking were a couple of Norwegians thought.

I follow both XC Ski and Biathlon and both draw huge crowds. And why? Because they know who their audience is and return there year after year. If World Athletics was in charge they would hold meets in mountains on other continents hoping someone shows up. So dumb.

As a former athlete and cross country skier, I always valued T&F more than XC skiing precisely for the fact than running on a standardised track allows you to measure objectively your progress and compare your performance with the one of other athletes anywhere as well as past/present athletes (no more fully true since the super shoes have been a real game changer). Aside from championships, XC and city races, we didn’t care much about ranking, as pure performance was the only relevant metrics during meets. Thirty years later I can still remember my exact yearly best marks on the track, while ranking never mattered on the track other than during championships.

I was missing this aspect during XC skiing events. I was also missing the direct shoulder to shoulder competition as most events were time trials with individual start. Unlike Athletics where everyone compètes with similar equipment, ski preparation does also plays a big rôle in XC skiing performance.

As for racing a lot, this is true for world class competitors. But for all other elite and sub-elite athletes, runners have much more opportunities to compete than XC skiers, and this all-year round. This said, as a spectator I enjoy watching both athletics and XC skiing, even tough the essence of sports is doing it rather than watching it.

Klaebo the legend.