For centuries in northern Europe, getting from one place to another in the midwinter snow meant strapping on skis.
So, the start of cross country ski racing could have been something like this:
"Hey, Hans, last one home milks the cows."
Cross country still is one of the more humble winter Olympic sports, lacking the thrill of ski jumping and the TV appeal of figure skating. But it's anything but boring, racers say.
"It's not that easy," said Paul Robbins, a reporter from Vermont who has covered the Nordic competitions at the past six Olympics. It requires strategy such as when to pace yourself, when to sprint and what kind of wax to use.
"They used to say, 'if you can walk, you can cross country ski,' " Robbins said. "But it's more like, 'if you can cross country ski, you can walk.' "
And if you can walk on skis, racers ask — why can't you run?
Cross country is a rugged mix of speed and endurance. Racers use different strategies to win competitions, explains Luke Bodensteiner, a two-time Olympian who heads the ski team's cross country program.
In the classic pursuit, the strategy depends on the snow conditions. If it's heavy snow, racers don't want to be at the head of the pack. For the 50-kilometer races and their mass starts, pacing is important. But in the sprint competition, the strategy is simple, said Bodensteiner. "Ski as hard as you can."
Cross country skiing is one of the oldest forms of travel in northern Europe — 7,000 years old, by some estimates. The Swedes and the Norwegians were very big on it, using similar methods to hunt. They would strap leather around one shoe to a piece of wood, pushing one foot forward to slide. The rifle or bow-and-arrow would be strapped to their backs, explained Robbins.
"In those days, there was not a hell of a lot of recreation," said Robbins.
It wasn't until the 19th century when Sondre Norheim revolutionized skiing. He came up with a binding to enable the skier with a free-heel movement. Skiers would put a single staff, a 7-foot stick, between their legs to push themselves or to stop.
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"Nordic skiing is a grunt sport," said Robbins, mindful of cross country's association to rugged Scandinavians who used such methods to traverse the mountainsides and deliver village mail in the 1800s.
But as veterans of the sport will tell you, cross country skiing is more than merely getting from Point A to Point B. There's the fresh air. The solitude of being in the backcountry woods. The aerobic exercise. The little bit of rush on the downhill portions of the trail.
Despite the benefits and storied history, still no American has ever won an Olympic gold medal on free-heel skis.
"Part of the curse in such a blessed country is that there are so many things we can do," said Robbins. "So when a kid comes along as a young skier, society says this isn't important."
The United States puts a higher priority on education, while in Europe, college can always wait for a promising young skier, Robbins added.
American attention and accolades in cross country earned a break in 1976, thanks to U.S. skier Bill Koch. He earned an Olympic silver medal, popularizing the skating technique called the "Siittonen step." Pauli Siittonen, a Finnish firefighter, developed the technique that bears his name.
For years, cross country skiing meant only one technique — the diagonal stride, where both skis stay in prepared tracks. It's also referred to as the classical technique. However, the skating technique — or freestyle method — is faster.
Cross country skiers would use skating primarily for their warm-ups, while many would practice with it on frozen lakes, Robbins said. But Koch figured it was a very quick way to win competitions and used it to win multiple races through the 1982 World Cup season.
The technique was blasted at the World Cup level by traditionalists wedged in a one-track mind. Cross country skiing should be done with both skis in the track, they insisted.
"Norwegians were saying, 'You can't do that. Skating isn't as pretty as the diagonal stride,' " said Robbins.
Traditionalists even tried to get the skating technique eliminated in the international competitions. But when there wasn't enough snow to create tracks during 1985 competitions in Austria, skating was the only way to go.
Skating was approved, and the World Cup schedule was split into classical and freestyle races. In the Olympic program and World Championships, the 50-50 split includes two legs of classic and two legs of skating in mixed technique.
Skating is used in the sprint, the new event added to the 2002 Winter Games. Bodensteiner said he believes sprinting offers the path for the first American Olympic gold medal.
World Cup sprints are between 0.8 and 1.8 kilometers and are staged in heats, with top finishers progressing into tougher rounds. American skiers are scoring their best international results in years in sprint races, with Marcus Nash and Justin Wadsworth placing eighth in a sprint relay earlier this season in Italy.
Nash won the men's sprint championship Saturday at the U.S. Cross Country Championships at Soldier Hollow. The nationals served as the first event held at the Wasatch Mountain State Park site, which will be the venue for Nordic competitions during the 2002 Winter Games.
In the sprint competition last weekend, Wadsworth placed third. Nina Kemppel of Anchorage, Alaska, was the top American finisher in the women's sprint, placing fourth behind a trio of international "guest" competitors.
Soldier Hollow is being called by many cross country aficionados as the best course on earth. Despite boasting 23 kilometers of trails, most are too challenging for novices to enjoy. But plans are under way to develop easier trails that would connect to nearby golf courses in Midway.
For racers, it's a challenging course — but one that is not grueling.
"It's a lot different than the trend to make hills steeper," said Bodensteiner.
The Snow Harp Olympic cross country course at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, demanded respect. The steep climbs meant the downhills were fast, and there was almost no rest involved.
At Soldier Hollow, the message is that "skiing is fun," said Bodensteiner.
"It's much more like real skiing," he added, explaining that the racer must rely more on technical aspects.
The Soldier Hollow site is expected to provide more enjoyment for spectators, said Robbins, mindful that racers on most cross country courses often disappear from view as they ski into densely wooded areas.
At Soldier Hollow, the loops are designed around the stadium to keep everyone interested. And Robbins sees that as a plus: "There's far more activity."