Cross Country Skiing at the 1968 Winter Olympics

The 1968 cross-country events took place in Autrans, a small commune in the Isère department, about 13 km west of Grenoble. There was no change to the Olympic Program since 1964. In the first event of the 1968 Winter Olympics, the 30 km race was won by Italian Franco Nones, which was significant as it was the first cross-country ski gold medal won by an athlete from other than Scandinavia or the Soviet Union. The other three men’s events were won by Norway. The story on the women’s side was that the Soviet Union did not dominate as they had in 1956-64. They failed to win any of the events, with Sweden’s Toini Gustafsson winning both women’s individual races. On the men’s side, Norway won the relay, which gave Harald Grønningen and Ole Ellefsæter two gold medals, Grønningen having won the 15 km and Ellefsæter the 50 km.