Jul 18, 2025 – The 2025/26 FIS Roller Ski World Cup season started in Madona (LAT) on July 17. Originally a recreational activity established in Italy in the 1930s, Roller Skiing became a summer training tool for Cross-Country skiers in the second half of the century.
The first competitions were held in the 1980s with FIS recognizing Roller Skiing as a distinct discipline from Cross-Country in 1992. World Cup events soon followed, and this year is the 25th anniversary of the first World Championships held in Rotterdam.
Roller skis have a short, rigid frame - usually made of aluminum or carbon fiber—and are equipped with two small rubber or polyurethane wheels. Due to their use on roads and other hard surfaces, rollers skiers often wear helmets and gloves to help prevent injury from falls.
“Roller Skiing is kind of mimicking Cross-Country Skiing, since it’s basically preparation for winter competition,” says FIS Roller Skiing Sub-Committee Chairman Mārtiņš Niklass. “There are two types of roller skis, one for skating which is usually shorter. And then you have Classic roller skis which are longer and heavier.
“For Classic roller skis, there is a ratchet mechanism in one of the wheels. When you kick you get a kind of grip like with the wax under the skis on snow.”
Almost all the big names in Cross-Country Skiing have competed in the Roller Ski World Cup. “I’d say 99% of Roller Ski athletes compete in the winter,” Nicklass states. “The top Cross-Country athletes - like Johannes Høsflot Klæbo and Frida Karlsson - have competed in Roller Ski World Cup or World Championships, but they’re not focusing on it as much as winter starts.”
Roller Skiing features most of the race formats familiar to Cross-Country Skiing enthusiasts although there is no Pursuit. There is also the Super Sprint, where athletes race over distances from 160 to 200 meters.
Roller Skiing gives chances for athletes from less renowned Cross-Country nations
Competing in his home town in the opening round is reigning overall Roller Ski World Cup champion Raimo Vigants (LAT). And the 26-year-old has come a long way since his initiation in the discipline.
“I started skiing as a kid in the winter, and in the summer I needed to do something else other than play soccer or run around,” he recalls. “My coach introduced to Roller Skiing. The first few sessions were really hard. I remember I was more rubbing my backside on the asphalt than Roller Skiing.”
Vigants’ main goal for the season ahead is to reach a second Olympic Winter Games at Milano Cortina 2026. And he hopes some strong finishes at the Roller Ski World Cup will put him on the right track.
“I know I’m really good in Mass Starts, especially in skate (Freestyle) disciplines,” he says.”So the main thing is to be in the top three and do well in all distances. But for the winter, definitely the plan is to go to the Olympics and have really great results.”
Anna Melnik (KAZ) was third in the 2023 FIS Roller Skiing World Cup and fourth the following year. While her priority this season is also to qualify for Milano Cortina, she hopes to perform well in races in Madona, and Rome (ITA).
“I first got on roller skis aged 13, when I joined a Cross-Country Skiing class at a children’s sports school,” she recalls. “As it was autumn, my first steps toward skiing were on roller skis. In Kazakhstan, roller skiing is an integral part of ski training for all ages.
“After becoming comfortable on roller skis, it was much easier for me to transition to snow skis. Roller skis always offer excellent glide and make it easier to cover even long distances, while skiing on snow depends heavily on weather and waxing. You don’t get consistent glide on snow so I prefer roller skis in this regard! But when it comes to technique, the difference is minimal.”
Unlike Cross-Country Skiing where ski and waxing technology often prove decisive, Roller Skiing sees competitors equipped with the same skis except for Super Sprint races. This enables athletes like Vigants and Melnik, who do not hail from Cross-Country powerhouse nations, to be more competitive.
“Kazakhstan isn’t a ‘super’ skiing nation,” Melnik admits. “We don’t have lucrative contracts with major equipment and ski manufacturers. But there’s a greater chance for me to achieve good results in Roller Skiing than in Cross-Country. I can even fight for the overall title in Roller Skiing and this is certainly motivating.
“I really like that everyone gets the same roller skis. This levels the playing field with victory depending solely on you and your physical fitness.”
“Us Latvians are not so rich in services or money, so we can’t get the best ski service, the best skis, or sometimes the best training facilities,” says Vigants. “Last winter, we showed that Latvians can make the top 30 - we did it three times. But in summer, you just have to get roller skis and usually you get the same as another skier.
“The biggest difference is, no matter what the weather is, the roller skis will be the same speed as your opponents. Of course, some guys are stronger on some tracks. But if you see a Mass Start, they usually go as a peloton. It shows that the conditions are more or less the same for everyone compared with the winter when you have different skis and different ski grinds.”
Different formats and settings widen Roller Skiing’s appeal
Emanuele Becchis (ITA) is a Super Sprint specialist in Roller Skiing. Despite having two Alpine Skiing uncles, inline roller skating was his first real passion.
“I switched to Cross-Country Skiing in the same period and I was already quite good on the roller blade, so it was easier for me to learn to ski on the roller skis,” he said. “That was 2006, and I fell in love with this sport.
“I continued with Cross-Country Skiing, but I’m a sprinter. The shortest in Cross-Country is 1.4km so there isn’t my distance on the snow. I like the feeling of speed, and I’m not scared of the asphalt like some others are. And the fast wheels that we use in the Super Sprints, as opposed to the normal slow wheels, are really fast.”
With terrain and surroundings far less specific than in the winter equivalent, Roller Skiing can take place in varied and picturesque venues. And Becchis has played his part in Rome being on this year’s World Cup schedule, with the Colosseum set to provide a stunning backdrop.
“We’ve been speaking about this for a long time but, until this year, it was just words that people and politicians say,” reflects the part-time high school teacher. ”Last year, I was in Rome with the federation. We spoke to President Mattarella and the Sports Minister Andrea Abodi.
“And I was excited because he (Abodi) told me he knew what a roller ski was, and that he would like to hold a competition this year. I was like, ‘Really? OK, why not?’ But now they show me where we will compete - we’ll be just in front of the Colosseum for the Sprint - and that’s crazy because it’s probably the most iconic, historical place in the world!”
“Rollerski competitions can be held anywhere on Earth, in the most beautiful locations,” says Melnik. “The upcoming stage in Rome with the Colosseum... Wow! I wish there were more events and that more strong skiers would participate.”
“I was really surprised to hear about the World Cup stage in Rome,” reveals Vigants. “I’m really happy that we’ll be in such a big, cultural city with so much history. It’s exciting that we have a chance to bring the sport so close to people and to big cities.
“I also dream that, some day, the Roller Ski World Cup will come to the Latvian capital Riga as we also have great streets with great views. But it’s amazing for the sport, to bring it out to the people.”
The future for Roller Skiing
With climate change threatening Cross-Country Skiing venues, and potentially shortening the season, Niklass believes Roller Skiing may soon become part of the World Cup calendar.
“There is a push from Asia and nations where there is a lack of snow,” he says. “I think there are 70 nations in the FIS family which have limited or no snow. And private events such as Blinkfestivalen (NOR), the Martin Fourcade Nordic Festival (FRA), and Allianslopet (SWE) show that Roller Skiing can attract spectators, sometimes even more than the winter version.
“It’s a big dilemma - we still want to push and preserve Cross-Country but, because of climate change and other issues, we need to look at alternatives to at least extend the season. I think the future could see Roller Skiing and Cross-Country combined in one season.
“In track and field, for instance, there is an indoor and an outdoor season. Some athletes are better indoors while others focus more on the outdoor campaign.”
Linn Sömskar (SWE) was one athlete who excelled on the roads. After clinching her 13th world title and a fourth overall World Cup crown last year, she retired to focus on her career as a physiotherapist. There is a chance, however, that the 36-year-old could return for Allianslopet - now part of the Roller Ski World Cup calendar - on home soil.
While Roller Skiing is part of Cross-Country, it is clearly a discipline on the rise in terms of popularity. And the Rome round will undoubtedly help it gain more fans and attention.
“In the past, we had an Italian Cup competition in the center of Torino,” recalls Becchis. “It was in the main shopping road, and there were lots of people stopping for 10 minutes watching. We were at the starting gate, and people would stop us to say, ‘Oh, what are you doing? What is this? It’s cool, but I’ve never seen it before.’
“I think in Rome we’ll have something similar where people stop for two minutes and think, ‘This is cool.’ In the two days, we’ll have a lot of spectators - maybe not for all the events - but at least they can see us and some of them will stop.”
Vigants adds, “We see that in Norway they are already holding big events with over 200 people racing, so I think this sport will get bigger. In time, it’s possible that we’ll see Roller Skiing at the end of the Cross-Country season but we’ll see. Some of the winters are really good, some are bad, but the main thing is that the sport is getting bigger, for sure.”
One major positive for Roller Skiing is its ease of access. “The thing I like most about Roller Skiing is that you can do it wherever you want,” says Becchis. “You just need asphalt. I did a video some years ago in Nice, in France, where I was roller skiing on a really small part of rock that’s almost in the middle of the sea.
“I usually go there because my parents have an apartment there so, when I want to escape, I go there and just enjoy the sea and train on my roller skis safely. I don’t need to bring the car - I can just put my rollers skis on in front of my place and go.”
After Madona, the Roller Ski World Cup starts visits Trollhättan (SWE) before heading to Rome. The finale at Val di Fiemme, part of the FIS Nordic Summer Festival, takes place from September 19-21.
