The race originated in 1902. At that time the race time was 5 - 6 hours. Today, depending on the snow they use 2 -2.5 hours. Fastest is 1 hour 55 min.
Normally around 60.000 spectators gather around the tracks out in the forest. Several thousands camps in tents the night before the race.
This is also the reason why we are doing so well in winter sports. It's in our culture. Families are out skiing almost every weekend during winter, bringing their kids out on skies as soon as they are able to walk. Our king is also a decent skier and are present at a lot of races during the winter. The present king is older now, but a few years ago you very well could meat him in the ski tracks with his dog on a Sunday.
In the black and white picture below you can see our former king on the railway to same race as today. He's there on the way together with ordinary spectators. He is even trying to pay for the ticket. This was during the oil crisis in the 70's.
The tower in the first picture is the ski jumping arena. This what they call big hill where they jump up to 155 yards. We have another bigger jumping arena where the world record is 277 yards. (You can see the record here: https://youtu.be/eyGfB1QpBSI)
Wasn't able to go today so are watching from the TV.
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