History...

Szaro, wietrznie i ponuro... (: troszke wiedzy nikomu jeszcze nie zaszkodziło :)

The Orgins of skiing, which has now become one of the most popular winter sports, can be traced back to Scandinavia and the three countries Sweden, Norway and Finland are considered to be the ones that introduced skiing to the world. Initialy skiing was mostly used in warfare. Until now historians remember the achievement of the Swedish warriors during the Battle of  Oslo who travelled vast areas of land on skis or the Russian – Finnish war a few centuries later, during which the Finnish soldiers were successful mostly  because of the use of skis. Many Swedes used skis during their winter fights in Poland, Russia and Germany, what, actually, made these countries familiar with this kind of military equipment and resulted in its application in their own war plans.

It was Norway which first considered   skiing as a sport. The first skiing competition, accessible for soldiers only, was held in Oslo in 1767 and included  cross – country runs. The first public cross – counrty run was also organised in Norway in 1843 and seventeen years later, in 1862, the first skiing competition, including not only runs, but also ski – jumping and some forms of slalom, was held.
Since that time skiing clubs were estabilished and skiin grew in popularity.

Modern skiing includes three basic groups of events: the Alpine skiing, the Nordic skiing and biathlon. The first one – the Alpine skiing – covers downhill races, slalom and gigant slalom; the Nordic combined comprises of cross – country races, ski – jumping and the Nordic.
All these sports have been included into the Winter Olympic Games since 1924 and it is easy to guess that the first Olympic winners were the Scandinavia – born competitors.