Nordic skiing—which includes cross country skiing and
ski jumping—reflects a tradition of practical, day-today skiing over 5,000 years old. Recreational Nordic skiing has maintained its low-key image; competitive skiing
has now split into two events, each using a different style.
History
Written sources from China and Scandinavia tell of informal competition and the use of skis in war. In Scandinavia and northern Russia, skis found preserved in
bogs date back four to five thousand years. From the
Norse Sagas and Icelandic Eddas, we also know of early
informal competition.
The first modern, organized competitions took
place in the Norwegian military, probably in 1767.
When the Norwegian ski troops disbanded in 1826, local civilian clubs took up the sport and organized
races. The competition near Kristiania (which became
the Holmenkollen) was first staged in 1879. By then,
Norwegians had emigrated throughout the world and
taken their skiing style with them. In Australia and the
Americas, they introduced locals to the use of skis for
traveling, visiting, and for winter enjoyment. Gold fever
also infected immigrants who knew how to ski, and in
the deep mountain snows of Kiandra (Australia) and
California (United States), skis became common in the
mining camps. Skiing mail carriers there were often
hailed as heroes.
In 1888 Fridtjof Nansen (1861–1930) crossed
southern Greenland at latitude 64 degrees on skis.
When his book about the journey, Paa Ski over Gronland, was translated into German, it sparked an interest in skiing among the wealthy outdoorsmen of Europe. By 1900 Nordic skiing was “a rich man’s passion”
throughout Europe, and skiing clubs were formed.
With the formation of clubs worldwide, administrative organizations were founded on the local, regional,
and national levels to organize meets and establish
rules. To retain control of “their” sport, Norwegians
called for an international ski congress in 1910 and held
the secretaryship until the Fédération Internationale de
Ski (FIS) was founded in 1924.
Recreational Cross Country Skiing
Recreational cross country skiing was the only form of
skiing until the 1920s and 1930s. Early recreational
skiers skied into the mountains in winter, and the more
adventurous even attempted winter climbs on skis—
both traditions that continue today. Most modern
cross-country skiers, however, favor a run across
meadows and through forests. Today the ski party is
more likely to consist of families, or small, informal
groups, not clubs.
Recreational Nordic skiing and ski equipment have
been aggressively marketed in the United States since
World War II, possibly because the beginning of the
country’s fitness cult coincided with Bill Koch’s
(1955–) unexpected Olympic silver medal for the 30-
kilometer (18.6-mile) race at Innsbruck in 1976. Synthetic, no-wax skis have replaced wooden ones.
Competitive Cross Country Skiing
Cross country racing, first organized on national levels
in Europe and America in the years before World War
I, followed Norwegian rules. According to the Scandinavian idraet tradition, the purpose of outdoor sport
was to produce an athlete who was not only fit but
morally upright. The true hero was not the winner of
these races, but the man whose combined points for
cross country and jumping marked him as the best allrounder.
After World War II, specialization became increasingly apparent as men and, from 1952 on, women
trained for specific distances. By the 1960s, cross country racing had become such a specialized sport that club
and recreational skiers no longer even considered entering any competitions. In China, however, and in other
countries where skiing did not become so specialized,
cross country events continued as club activities.
An offshoot of cross country skiing is the biathlon
—a cross country race with target shooting at intervals—derived from the military ski patrol race.
Biathlon became an Olympic event in 1960.
Before World War II, women participated only peripherally in Nordic ski competition. However, following World War II, women’s cross country became part
of the Olympic program at Oslo (Norway) in 1952 with
a 10-kilometer event.At Lillehammer (Norway) in 1994
there were women’s events of 5, 15, and 30 kilometers
and a 4 x 5 kilometer relay, besides a 7.5 and 15 kilometer biathlon and a 4 x 7.5 kilometer relay. The 5-kilometer and 30-kilometer events were to be run in classical stride, the 15-kilometer event was to be run in the
free technique, better described as the skating step.
Style Controversies
The arguments between proponents of the classic technique and those who favored the skating step are about
20 years old. The skating step—one ski in a track and
the other used like a skate to push off—was first introduced at the Holmenkollen 50-kilometer race in 1971,
and the Engadine (Switzerland) marathon in 1975 was
won by a skier using the skating technique. The
method proved faster over flatter terrain, but it also cut
up the prepared track, was derived from another sport,
and seemed to place more emphasis on winning by use
of a modern technique than on honoring the classic
cross country stride. By the late 1970s, the skating
stride was used so effectively by the Finns that it was
called the Finnstep, or Siitonenschritt, after Pauli Siitonen. Today the classical and free technique are separate
cross country disciplines.
—E. JOHN B. ALLEN