subject: Lapland,skiing,skiing Lapland [print this page] Lapland,skiing,skiing Lapland Lapland,skiing,skiing Lapland
Skiing is a very popular sport and every year see's lots of individuals and families go off on their annual skiing holiday. Some skiers are avid and extremely good, others just like to have a go and thoroughly enjoy it. We take it for granted that skiing has always been in existence but like everything, skiing has history. There are drawings going back in history that show men on skies and the first ski was found in Sweden and dated back to about 4500bc. The word ski actually originates from the word skio (North God) which actually means a stick of wood. Different types of skies have emerged over the years and a man called Sondre Norheim was responsible for inventing skies that depict the modern ski today. Sondre grew up in Norwegian Telemark and originally developed a Birch bind which enabled skiers to ski without losing their skies. Later he introduced a smaller curved ski which allowed more ease when travelling along in the snow.
Nordic people and Sami used skies for hunting and for getting around and we also know that skiing races were held in both Norway and Sweden and we also know that skiing sticks evolved from walking sticks in order to give the skier more balance. Nordic skiing or cross country skiing was the first type of skiing simply because of the quality of the skies, before better invention of skies; it would have been impossible to downhill ski with the first skies made.
The first package ski holiday took place in 1903 and was organised by Sir Henry Lunn and during the second half of the 20th century skiing had become largely a sport for the rich and like some things today was more of a fashion status than a real joy. Snowboarding was a sport that was not accepted easily. Many ski resorts at first refused to allow snowboarding and considered it something of a fad. Snowboarding actually not only lasted the duration but became almost as popular as skiing and snowboarding became an Olympic winter sport in 1998.
There is now so much diversity and so many resorts to choose from simply because skiing is one of the most popular winter sports and when you read back over the history of the ski, it is hard to imagine back then ever realising that skiing would become quite so popular.
