page_title: History of skiing
section_title: Skiing as sport
hierarchical_section_title: History of skiing / Skiing as sport
caption_attribution_description: English: Gråkallbakken ski jumping hill in Trondheim, Norway Norsk bokmål: Gråkallbakken i Trondheim
context_page_description: Skiing, or traveling over snow on skis, has a history of at least eight millennia. The earliest archaeological examples of skis were found in Russia and date to 6000 BCE. Although modern skiing has evolved from beginnings in Scandinavia, 5000-year-old wall paintings suggest use of skis in the Xinjiang region of what is now China; however, this continues to be debated. Originally purely utilitarian, starting in the mid-1800s skiing became a popular recreational activity and sport, becoming practiced in snow-covered regions worldwide, and providing a market for the development of ski resorts and their related communities.
context_section_description: The first recorded organized skiing exercises and races are from military uses of skis in Norwegian and Swedish infantries. For instance details of military ski exercises in the Danish-Norwegian army from 1767 are retained: Military races and exercises included downhill in rough terrain, target practice while skiing downhill, and 3 km cross-country skiing with full military backpack. Slalom (Norwegian: slalåm) is a word of Norwegian origin that has entered the international skiing vocabulary. In the 1800s skiers in Telemark challenged each other on "wild slopes" (ville låmir), more gentle slopes had the adjective "sla". Some races were on "bumpy courses" (kneikelåm) and sometimes included "steep jumps" (sprøytehopp) for difficulty. These 19th century races in Telemark ran along particularly difficult trails usually from a steep mountain, along timber-slides and ended with a sharp turn ("Telemark turn") on a field or icy lake.
  1809: Olaf Rye: first known ski jumper.
  1843: First public skiing competition ("betting race") held in Tromsø, Norway on March 19, 1843. Also the first skiing competition reported in a newspaper.
  1861: First ski clubs:  Inderøens Skiløberforening founded in the Trøndelag region of Norway  (possibly in 1862). Trysil Skytte- og Skiløberforning founded 20 May 1861 in Trysil. Skiing established in Australia at Kiandra, which led to the founding of the Kiandra Snow Shoe Club. Ski racing as an organised sport commences in America
  1862: First public ski jumping competition held at Trysil, Norway, January 22, 1862. Judges awarded points for style ("elegance and smoothness").
  1863: First recorded female ski jumper at Trysil competition.
  1864: From January 1864 "Trondheim Weapons Training Club" organizes regular training and competition races (cross-country and jumping), in Trondheim, Norway.
  1872:  The oldest ski club in North America still existing is the Nansen Ski Club, which was founded in 1872 by Norwegian immigrants of Berlin, New Hampshire under a different name.
  1878: On the occasion of the Exposition Universelle in Paris, the Norwegian pavilion presents a display of skis. This ancestral means of locomotion draws the attention of visitors who buy many of them. Henry Duhamel experiments with a pair at Chamrousse in the Alps.
  1879: first recorded use of the word slalom.
  1884: First pure cross-country competition held in Trondheim when ski jumping was dropped from the annual competition.
  1893 Franz Reisch makes first descent on skis at Kitzbuhl
  1893 William Adolf Baillie Grohman starts skiing in the Tyrol with his family using four pairs of skis sent from Norway as a present.
  1893: Henrik Angell introduces skiing in Montenegro.
  November 1895: creation of the Ski Club des Alpes in Grenoble by the friends of Henry Duhamel to whom he had distributed fourteen pairs of skis acquired during his trip to Finland
  1904: First ski race in Italy, at Bardonecchia.
  1905: foundation of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.
  1905/1906: The notion of "slalom" (Norwegian: "slalåm") used for the first time at a race in Sonnenberg. Skiing between poles with flags called "Wertungsfahren" at Münchenkuggel.
  1906: A slalom race were held in Oslo.
  1908: Sir Arnold Lunn founds the Alpine Ski Club
  1908: The Kiandra Snow Shoe Club of Australia holds an "international contest" of "ski running".
  1922: start of the Vasaloppet.
  1922: Arnold Lunn creates modern slalom competitive skiing.
  1922: First team ski race event at Varsity Trip between Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
  1924: formation of the International Ski Federation, also the first Winter Olympics.
  1924: Kandahar Ski Club formed in Mürren, Switzerland
  1929: Norwegian instructors arrive in Sapporo and train Japanese in ski jumping.
  1931: FIS international slalom contest.
  1932: start of the Birkebeinerrennet
  1936: Winter Olympics includes downhill race.
  1952 Winter Olympics.: Women's Nordic skiing debuts
  Paralympic cross-country skiing debuts at the 1976 Winter Paralympics.
  1992: Mogul skiing and Freestyle skiing added to the 1992 Winter Olympics.
  2002 Winter Olympics: Appea
caption: Ski jumping in Trondheim 1907
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