The first true National Cross Country Ski Championships, or Dominion Championships as they were called then, were held February 20, 1921 at Côte-de-Neiges Hill on Mount Royal in Montreal. There is however a record of a Dominion Championships being held in 1914 in Ottawa.
The Dominion Championships moved west for the first time in 1931, however no easterners attended. The National Championships have been continuous since then with the exception of 1941-46 (inclusive), when the events were not held because of World War II.
Until 1955, the Championships was one individual race of 18 km (give or take a kilometer or two). The Championships male-only status came to an end in 1954 when a women’s 9 km event was added. However, the women’s event was not an annual occurrence until 1963.
In 1954 the National Championships program entered a new era with the introduction of a championships for junior skiers. In 2001, the program again took a new direction, this time combining the National Championships and National Junior Championships into one super event.
