The longest distance race is conducted like a marathon, so you have a huge bunch of skiers.
Invariably the first 35 or 40 skiers are Sa'ami, or an American or Canadian or German who looks exactly like the Sa'ami and probably has no idea where his ancestors came from but he sure likes to ski.
Used to be thought this Sa'ami dominance of cross country skiing had to do with opportunity and culture. Then they discovered that most of the Sa'ami have been separated from the European people for the greater part of 14,000 years, and some in America for 24,000 years.
What that means is genetic change can happen fairly rapidly if your life depends on it!
In the last Winter olympics the eventual top skier was a Sa'ami who actually speeded up for the last couple of kilometers ~ there is no training possible that enables you to do that trick.
I doubt either the East or West Africans will ever become top competitors in cross country skiing though.
There's always the Jamaican Bobsled team, maybe Bolt will tryout for that.
Cross country skiing ain’t a sport! It’s how a Finn gets to the liquor store.
I kid!