History

Nordic skiing consists of techniques and events that evolved in the hilly terrain of Norway and the other Scandinavian countries. The modern Nordic events are the cross-country races (including a relay race) and ski-jumping events. The Nordic combined is a separate test consisting of a ski-jumping contest followed by a cross-country race. The cross-country race is a pursuit. The winner of the ski-jumping portion starts first, and subsequent competitors start after serving time penalties that are determined by their ski-jumping performance score. The final winner is the first past the finish line.

There are numerous factors that differentiate the various individual cross-country races, such as the type of start, the style of skiing, and the distance. Typical lengths of international races are 10, 20, and 50 km. Sprint races take place on a course between 1 and 1.8 km long. Contestants either begin at intervals, the lowest time determining the winner, or with a mass start, the first past the finish line determining the winner. In pursuit events, skiers first compete in a traditional cross-country race. For the second part the skiers’ starts are staggered according to the times of the first race. The pack chases the leader, and the first across the finish line wins.

The other important aspect of a cross-country race is the style of skiing. Until the 1970s there was only one style, now called classic, in which skiers follow parallel tracks. A more efficient type of cross-country skiing was popularized by American Bill Koch when he used a “skating” stride, pushing his skis outside the parallel tracks. This innovative style is now used in many cross-country events. The skating technique requires longer poles and shorter skis than the classic style. It also requires higher boots that give improved ankle support.

In ski jumping, competitors ski down a hill, accumulating speed (as much as 100 km [62 miles] per hour) until they reach the takeoff, where they spring outward and upward. Once in the air, they can rely only on body position to maximize their jump distance, pointing the tips of the skis outward in opposite directions to create a V shape. The landing of a jump is made on a steep section of the hill in a more upright position, with the shock of contact taken up by the knees and hips and one ski farther forward than the other (the Telemark position). Athletes make two jumps. Performance is decided partly by distance covered and partly by form, on the basis of style marks awarded by five judges. Most senior international competitions, including the Olympics, have normal-hill and large-hill events. These measure 85–109 meters (279–358 feet) and 110–149 meters (361–489 feet), respectively, though at a given venue the difference between the hills’ lengths must be at least 25 meters (82 feet).

Individual Nordic events—in both cross-country skiing and ski jumping—were first included in the Olympics at the Winter Games at Chamonix, France, in 1924.

Alpine skiing

By the start of the 20th century, a second upstart style of skiing competition had joined the older established cross-country skiing races and ski-jumping contests of Nordic skiing. The downhill races of this Alpine skiing, developed in the mountainous terrain of the Alps in central Europe, were generally dismissed by Nordic skiers, who considered their annual cross-country and ski-jumping events at the Holmenkollen Ski Festival near Oslo (from 1892) and the Nordic Games (held quadrennially from 1901 to 1917 and 1922 to 1926) to be the only proper representation of the sport of skiing. In 1930, however, the Nordic skiing countries of Norway, Sweden, and Finland finally withdrew their resistance and allowed Alpine events to be fully sanctioned by skiing’s international governing body, now called the Fédération Internationale de Ski et de Snowboard (FIS; International Ski and Snowboard Federation), which was founded in 1924.

Modern Alpine competitive skiing is divided into four races—slalom, giant slalom, supergiant slalom (super-G), and downhill—each of which is progressively faster and has fewer turns than its predecessor on the list. Super-G and downhill are known as speed events, which are contested in single runs down long, steep, fast courses featuring few and widely spaced turns. The slalom and giant slalom are known as technical events, which challenge the skier’s ability to maneuver over courses marked by closely spaced gates through which both skis must pass; winners of these events are determined by the lowest combined time in two runs on two different courses. The Alpine combined event typically consists of a downhill and a slalom race, with the winner having the lowest combined time.

Alpine skiing made its Olympic debut at the 1936 Winter Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, where a combined race (featuring both downhill and slalom events) was held. The first giant slalom Olympic competition took place at the 1952 Winter Games in Oslo, and the super-G slalom was added at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. That same year the combined event, which had been removed from the roster of Olympic events in the 1940s, returned as an official event; it later underwent various changes in format. The individual combined race was replaced by a team combined event (comprising a downhill or super-G run and a slalom run, each completed by a different athletes) at the 2026 Winter Games in northern Italy.

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