Origins
People began strapping skis to their feet as far back as 5,000 years ago. It is believed that Norwegians were the first -- they used skis as a way of hunting across snow-covered terrain. From Norway, skiing expanded throughout Scandinavia and Russia as a mode of winter transportation and eventually as a sport similar to cross-country skiing. Alpine skiing evolved from cross-country skiing. The first alpine skiing competition, a primitive downhill, was held in the 1850s in Oslo. A few decades later, the sport spread to the remainder of Europe and to the United States, where miners held skiing competitions to entertain themselves during the winter.

Inclusion as an Olympic sport
Modern alpine racing was invented by Englishman Sir Arnold Lunn and Austrian Hannes Schneider. Lunn, a son of a London travel agent, spent his years traveling through the Alps and envisioning racing through the majestic range. Lunn organized the first slalom in 1922 in Muerren, Switzerland, and joined forces with Schneider two years later to organize the race that would become the first Olympic alpine event. The Arlberg-Kandahar, a combined slalom and downhill event, is now referred to as the first legitimate alpine event -- the race that planted the seed for alpine's inclusion in the Olympic program.

Birth of a Paralympic sport
Men and women in the standing and visually impaired categories have competed in giant slalom and slalom skiing events since the inaugural Paralympic Winter Games of 1976 in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden. Downhill was added at the Innsbruck 1984 Paralympic Winter Games and super-G at the Lillehammer 1994 Paralympic Winter Games. Sit-skiing, which evolved into mono-skiing, was introduced as a demonstration sport at the 1984 Paralympics. It became a medal event at the Nagano 1988 Paralympic Winter Games.

Complete historical results

About This Sport: Alpine Skiing front page