Interesting, never heard of this before. I would have expected endurance running to translate to endurance skiing better, but I don't know how good runners they were. Even top 1% is great but probably not Olympics.
I've done a fair amount of cross-country skiing, and am a locally-competitive distance runner. My guess is that if you've never even seen snow, your skiing efficiency will be poor enough that you can't finish (probably because "what's the point", not because you can't make the distance) or end up last against good skiers. Give it a few years, maybe your form will improve enough to be competitive. But it's not like running where you mostly just run.
It doesn't really translate well because an important aspect of cross-country skiing is the technique, and without proper technique you dispel too much energy to be competitive.
