Modern history of skiing
Pioneer Sondre Norheim, from Morgedal in Telemark, has often been given the honour as the true father of skiing, inventing the equipment and techniques that led to modern skiing as we see it today. Actually, there are no proofs that he himslelf invented anything. But he must have been a wonderful skier, and an inspiration for generations. The myth about Sondre as the father of modern skiing was largely constructed in Norway from the 1930s, and especially in connection with the Olympic Winter Games in Oslo in 1952. Most of the inventions attributed to Norheim were in fact known a long time before him.
- In the 17th century the baron of Valvasor wrote reports on skiing activities in Slovenia.
- The usefulness of skis for military purpose speeded up their development and spread. The Norwegian military had skiing competitions from the 1670s.
- The first known civilian ski race took place in Tromsø, Norway in 1843.
- In 1875, the first ski club, and two years later the first ski school were founded in Kristiania (now Oslo).
- The Englishman William Cecil Slingsby, the "father of Norwegian mountaineering", helped inspire ski mountaineering after his crossing of the 1,550m high (5,800 feet) Keiser Pass, Norway, on skis in 1880.
- In 1883 the German ski pioneer Paulcke crossed the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland on his Norwegian skis.
- In 1888 the Austrian Max Kleinoschegg had his first attempts on skis on the Ruckerlberg near Graz.
- Also in the year 1888, the Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen made the first crossing of Greenland, travelling from East to West on skis. The report on his expedition, Paa ski over Grønland, was published in 1890 in both Norwegian and English, and later in German. It aroused great interest in skiing in Europe and the United States, as well as creating a Norwegian national hero. From then on skiing was regularly in the news, and was soon adopted as a passtime and a sport by the wealthier classes of Europe, as well as being adopted by the military in several countries.
- The first ski club in central Europe was founded at Munich, Germany, during the winter of 1890 to 1891.
- The German Wilhelm von Arlt made the first ski ascent of a over 3,000m, when he climbed the Rauris Sonnblick (3,103m / 10,180 feet high) in 1894.
- The first packaged ski holidays took place in 1903, to Adelboden, Switzerland, organised on a commercial basis by Sir Henry Lunn under the guise of the Public Schools Alpine Sports Club, which booked entire hotels. Winter holidays in Switzerland had become very popular with the British aristocracy since the first winter tourists to St Moritz in 1864.
- The predecessor to the downhill ski race, the Roberts of Kandahar Cup took place in Crans-Montana (Montana-sur-Sierre) in 1911, the cup donated by Lord Roberts of Kandahar.
- The first downhill race took place in 1921, organised by Sir Arnold Lunn for the British National Ski Championships, followed by the first modern slalom in 1922, also by Lunn.
- 1924 saw the foundation of the International Ski Federation in in Chamonix, France.
- In March 1928, downhill and the modern slalom events were combined for the first time to form the Arlberg-Kandahar open international alpine skiing competition, organised by Arnold Lunn and Hannes Schneider in St Anton, Austria.
- At the invitation of the FIS, the Ski Club of Great Britain organises downhill and slalom races in parallel with the 1928 Second Winter Olympics at St Moritz.
In Austria centers of skiing activities were Mürzzuschlag and Semmering. When???
In the 19th century the Telemark ski revolutionized alpine skiing, being the first ski with a remarkable waist making it much easier for skiers to turn. When???
Ski jumping
The first skiing events where ski jumping was included were held in Tromso/, Norway in 1843. The first pure ski jumping event was held in Trysil on January 22 1862. Later, the yearly Husebybakken events in Oslo from 1879 were moved to Holmenkollen from 1892, and Holmenkollen was to become the Mecca of ski jumping.
Austrian Ski pioneers
- Matthias Zdarsky, the so-called "Father of Alpine Skiing", started skiing in 1890. He altered his Norwegian skis by shortening them and later on he invented the first alpine binding for his skis, which he called Lilienfelder binding.
In 1896 he published his first book on skiing technique. Zdarsky stemmed the downhill ski out, leaned inside to the pole, unweighted the inner ski and brought it parallel, he used rotation technique. He taught skiing and invented ski acrobatics.
The first slalom race was directed by Zdarsky and took place at Muckenkogel, Lilienfeld, in 1905.
- Georg Bilgeri published the book "Alpine skiing" about Norwegian and Zdarskian skiing technique in 1910. He invented the use of two poles and focused on snow plow, snow plow turns and stem turns. With his program the first ski schools started their work in Tyrol.
- Johannes Schneider invented the Stem Christie method of turning in 1910.
- 1922 Hannes Schneider founded Austria*s first ski school in St. Anton. In the year 1926, two years after the formation of the International Skiing Association (FIS) in Chamonix, France, he published the book "Miracle of the Snowshoe" together with Dr. Arnold Fanck.
- Toni Seelos invents the Parallel turn in the 1930s