Skiing has a very long history: Man used skis to move across the snow before the wheel was invented. Archaeologists have found primitive drawings, depicting stylised men with skis on their feet, in the Rodoy cave (Norway). these pictures date back up to 3000 years ago, just like the fragments of boards found in some localities in Scandinavia and Siberia. Skiing was started initially because of the need to transport goods easily in the mountains during the winter months, and it took many years for it to evolve into a competitive sport.
Skiing competitions with sporting connotations only began to be mentioned during the second half of the Nineteenth Century in Norway. Alpine skiing however, was a much more recent development, starting at around the beginning of the Twentieth Century.
In the old Norwegian language, the word "skid" means "covered with skin". People actually used sealskin or reindeer skin to prevent the boards that were being used as early "skis" from sliding backwards when they had to go uphill. There is also another possible origin to the word, wich is also Scandinavian: "Ski" actually means a piece of wood taken from the most seasoned part of the tree trunk, wich was then used for skis.
In some areas there it was the custom to use two boards of different lenghts. The shorter ski was used for the pushing movement and the longer one ensured a proper sliding movement was achieved. Those who used skis of the same lenght pushed themselves forwards using a stick or a lance, which eventually became useful ski poles.
Just like many other sporting disciplines, skiing has also passed through a military period during its evolution into its modern form. Norwegians in the 17^ century organised competitions aimed at training their young soldiers. The specialties obviously had a military leaning: rifle shooting at speed ( a forerunner of the biathlon), and the freestyle downhill competition, a cross country race that was attempted with a rucksack and bayonet.
The first non-military race was also held in Norway: King Harald was defeated by one of his warriors during a skiing challenge. Skiing in the modern sense of the word was first talked of only during the second half of the nineteenth Century: in 1860 the King of Norway again gave a cup as a prize for a race held in Oslo, whereas the discipline spread to the rest of Europe after this. There is a curious anecdote regarding the introduction of skiing to Italy: in 1897, on his return from one of his journeys, the engineer Adolf Kind, a Swiss businessman, brought an old model of a ski made of ash to turin. It is said that the people who saw Kind coming down the Bardonecchia slopes, red in the face and with a flowing white beard rippling out behind him in the wind, ran away terrified, shrieking: "The devil! The devil!".
