Winter Olympic sport with the most events: Cross-country skiing, 12

Year the 1.5-kilometre sprint was added to the Olympics: 2002Salt Lake City

First Olympic women's cross-country ski event: 1952Oslo

First Canadian Olympic medallist: Beckie Scott, gold, 2002 Salt Lake City

First Canadian world championship medallist: Sara Renner, sprint bronze, 2005

In both these Olympics Scandinavians claimed the top 11 places in the 15-kilometre classical race: 1924 Chamonix, 1932 Lake Placid

The first two non-Scandinavians to place in the top eight in the 15km classical race: Pavel Kochin and Nikolai Anikin of Soviet Union, 1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo

Year the Olympic 18km race switched to a 15km distance: 1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo

One oxygen efficient champion: Sven-Ake Lundback, winner of the 15km classical race in the 1972 Sapporo Games, had an oxygen consumption rate of 94.6 milliliters per kilogram per minute. Olympic-calibre marathoners range in the 80s

Electronic timing introduced: 1980Lake Placid

Young champion: Sweden’s Gunde Svan, 22, became the youngest cross-country skier to win Olympic gold, 1984 Sarajevo

Most decorated Winter Olympian: Norwegian cross-country ski legend Bjorn Daehlie, 12 Olympic medals

First Bulgarian to win a Winter Olympic medal: Cross-country skier Ivan Lebanov, 1980 Lake Placid

First American to win a cross-country skiing Olympic medal: Bill Koch of Guilford, Vermont, silver, 1976 Innsbruck

Norway’s Vegard Ulvang wins first of three Olympic gold medals, 1992Albertville

Italian medal sweep: Manuela Di Centa of Italy won medals in every cross-country event, 1994 Lillehammer

Most mothers on podium: All three medallists of the 15 km race, 1998 Nagano