Skiing History
Skiing began, not as the exciting sport that we know and love today, but as a way of life, a necessity, a tool for survival. No one can tell how skiing actually came into existence, but through studying history and ancient skis that have been unearthed in various places, we can conclude that skiing was a vital means of transportation and was used for work, hunting and exploring. Wooden skis ranging from an estimated 2,500 to 5,000 years old have been found in Scandinavia with the oldest known ski being a wide, short ski found in Sweden that has been shown to be over 4500 years. In Southern Greenland an 85cm-long piece of wood was discovered in 1997 and it has been determined to be about over a thousand years old and was probably brought over by Norsemen. A rock carving of a skier, found on a Norwegian island has been dated as being over 4,000 years old. Other rock paintings and skis found in bogs indicate that hunters and trappers used skis at least 5000 years ago. Even before that it is believed that skis were made from the bones of large animals and were attached to the boots using leather strips or thongs.
Thousands of years ago, Skiing started in Northern Europe and Asia. It is believed that the first skiers used Skis from the bones of large animals strapping the bones to the toe of their boots using leather strips. Meanwhile, wooden Skis believed to be 2,500 to 5,000 years old were found in Norway, Finland, and Sweden. All these early Skis were mostly used on flat ground since the Ski Bindings were loose toe straps that would not keep the Skis attached to the boots during downhill runs.
There was a time when Skis were used in a war. This was during the Battle of Oslo, Norway (A.D. 1200) where Norwegian scouts used Skis to spy on Swedish enemies. In 1747, a Norwegian military Ski company was formed. This paved the way of introducing the manner of fastening the skiis both at the heels and toes of boots. In this way, the Skis remained attached even in downhill Skiing.
Modern sking developed in 1850. Sondre Norheim, a Norwegian, invented the first stiff Bindings. He made them by tying pieces of twisted wet birch roots on his boots. These roots dried up and turned stiff. These Bindings provided more control than leather straps. With these improved Bindings, Sondre Norheim had come up with new turning motions.
Other Skiing enthusiasts marked the development of modern Skiing. In 1896, Mathias Zdarsky of Austria introduced the technique of pushing one Ski at an angle to the fall line in order to control speed. During the early part of 1900s, Hannes Schneider, also of Austria, got inspired of Zdarsky's technique and developed new stopping and turning maneuvers, which he organized into the first formal method of Ski instruction. It was later known as the Arlberg technique, in which most modern Skiing techniques were based.
In the early 1900s, Skiing became a very popular competitive sport. The first Slalom race was held in 1921 at Switzerland. After three years, Nordic competitions became part of the first Winter Olympic Games, as well as the Alpine events which were included in 1936.
In the early part of World War II (1939-1945), Finland troops used Ski patrols to resist the Russian intruders, and in 1945, Ski troops of the U.S. army fought the Germans in the mountains of Italy.
After the war, Skiing was seen in a whole new perspective. Skiing winners of international competitions got increasing publicity. This publicity, as well as the extensive television coverage of different Ski meets and exposure to other forms of media, have stimulated fascination to recreational Skiing. In fact, around 400 Ski resorts were built in the United States in 1960.
Nowadays, Skiing is the most popular winter sport with about 45 million fans and thousands of Ski Resorts worldwide. The sport has developed itself in a couple of ways coming with a number of variations of which Snowboarding is the largest.
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