SKIING is the world's oldest sport. The post-glacial Stone Age people of the northern latitudes in Europe and Russia used skis—not made for speed but to keep hunters on top of the snow—to survive harsh winters. The Rodoy rock carvings of a hunter on runners, 4500 years old, are above the Arctic Circle in Norway. The oldest ski, found in Sweden, is 5000 years old. Scandinavia's peat bogs contain many ski artifacts, and the Viking "Sagas" described kings as skiers. In 1206, two Norwegians on skis carried the infant heir to the throne, still celebrated as the "Birch leg Race" (legs wrapped in birch bark for warmth). Sweden's annual Vasaloppet Cross Country race honors Gustav Vasa's 1523 ski trip to raise an army against the Danes. Old skis consisted of one long runner, used to glide, and a shorter one to brake and climb (on which skins could be applied). By 1840, cross-country ski ("x-c ski") races, with skis of equal length, were held among military personnel in Norway. With civilian participation, ski contests became popular among rural peasants. Early ski races were all "Nordic" events: skiing over rolling terrain and down short steeper slopes where jumping was necessary. A "Nordic ski" refers to boots mounted to the ski only at the toe, with the heel free to move up and down.

In 1868 Sondre Norheim, from the Telemark region of Norway, broke all records in Christiana (Oslo). The "Father of Modern Skiing" had added a willow strap around the heel and contoured his skis so that they were slightly waisted in the middle. His methods of artfully controlling speeds in downhill descents are now called the Telemark and the Christiana (now known as the Christie) turns. The first Winter Olympic Games in 1924 in Chamonix, France, had just 5 sports; both skiing events were Nordic: Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined. Cross-Country Skiing first made the Olympic agenda as an event during the 1932 Winter Games in Lake Placid. The Telemark turn proved to be insufficient for the steeper slopes of the Alps. Boots that were mounted to the ski at both the toe and the heel increased control for much faster speeds, giving birth to the downhill and slalom events. An Alpine ski event—the Combined—was first introduced in the 1936 Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria.

Alpine skiing is the fastest non-motorized sport on earth. Its popularity exploded after the invention of the ski lift. After World War II, Austria and Switzerland developed the first Alpine ski resorts. The most spectacular forms of skiing are ski jumping and ski flying, thrilling for both jumper and spectators. Giant Slalom appeared first in the 1952 Oslo Winter Olympics. Super G—a hybrid of Giant Slalom and Downhill—added a 4^th Alpine ski discipline to the World Cup events in 1983 and the Olympics in 1988.

The California Gold Rush of 1849 imported the "Norwegian snowshoes" to America. Gold miners, including many Scandinavian immigrants, used skis extensively in the Sierra Nevadas. "Snowshoe Thompson," a Norwegian-American who carried mail for 20 years from Placerville, California to Genoa, Nevada, made his "Snow-Shoe Express" the counterpart to the Pony Express. Miners amused themselves during the winter with downhill races. Camp rivalry created a racing circuit and secret recipes for "doping" (waxing) often determined the winner. Betting and après-ski revelry were intense. The first ski tournament in America was organized by miners in La Porte, California—15 years before Europe.

The discovery of gold in the Rockies moved skiing to Colorado. At the turn of the century, many of Norway's finest ski jumpers came to America. Alf Engen, a sixteen-time U.S. ski champion during the 1930s and 40s, coached the 1948 U.S. Olympic Ski Team and taught skiing at Alta, Utah, for 50 years. Scandinavians who came to be miners and lumbermen became part of Upper Michigan's skiing history as well. The Norden Ski Club founded in 1887 in Ishpeming (a tiny mining community near Lake Superior) joined 17 other Midwestern ski clubs in 1904 to form the National Ski Association (NSA)—later the United States Ski Association. In 1907 Carl Howelsen, "The Flying Norseman," ski jumped in Madison Square Garden. Barnum & Bailey Circus billed ski jumping as "The Greatest Show on Earth." The early days of ski competition focused on ski jumping, which peaked in the 1930s. The 1940 and 1944 Olympics were canceled, but skiing became part of the war effort. Trained in Colorado, the 10^th Mountain Division was deployed in Italy in 1945. Its veterans helped develop new ski areas nationwide. Once a rowdy silver mining town, Alta turned into Utah's first ski area and became a world premier Alpine ski destination, thanks to the Engen brothers (Alf, Sverre, and Corey) whose collective skiing feats were unrivaled. Salt Lake City will host the 2002 Winter Olympics. Seeking greater thrills, the first "ski flying" tournament was hosted in 1970 at Suicide Hill, Michigan. Rather than following the curve of the hill, ski fliers aim for much greater heights and distances, but the Olympics banned ski flying by limiting jumping distances to 90 meters. Federation Internationale de Ski (FIS), the governing body for ski jumping, holds ski flying on a 120-meter jump. There are no more than 100 skiers in the entire world capable of participating in this highly specialized and dangerous sport.

A prehistoric sport has made a lot of history!

Baulch, Vivian M. "Michigan's Long History of Ski Jumping," The Detroit News (2000).

Engen, Alan. For the Love of Skiing: From Dreams to Olympic Rings—Utah's Story (Gibbs Smith, Publisher, 1998). Ski News, Inc.

SpeedSki.com History of Alpine Skiing.

New England Ski Museum (1999). Franconia, NH (1999).

Pfeif, Pat. "Ski History," Colorado Ski Museum (1996-2000).

United States National Ski Hall of Fame. Ishpeming, MI.

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Miriam Claude Meijer, Ph.D.
02/16/05