Norway, Sondre Norheim and the birth of ski sport.

Before Norheim

The compiled timeline published by the International Skiing History Association (ISHA) lists several Norwegian firsts from 1733 to the early 1860s. Several of its entries name no source, and those are marked here as unconfirmed.

• 1733: Jens Henrik Emahusen writes the first military ski rules (uncited, unconfirmed).
• 1767: prizes offered for military ski competitions in Norway (uncited, unconfirmed).
• Around 1800: Telemark skiing is well known across Norway and a Christiania technique develops (credited to Nikkila, 1966).
• 1808 to 1809: Olaf Rye's jump of about 15 alen, which the timeline calls the first recorded jump distance (no source named, unconfirmed).
• 1843: the first newspaper reference to an organised cross-country race, in Tromsø (uncited, unconfirmed).
• 1861: Trysil Skytte- og Skiløberforening, which the timeline calls Norway's first ski club (credited to Vaage).
• 1862: the first ski-jump competition, in Trysil (uncited, unconfirmed).

Sondre Norheim, as the historians record him

Store norske leksikon (SNL), Norway's national encyclopedia, in an article drawing on the Norwegian biographical dictionary, gives Sondre Ouverson Norheim's birth as 10 June 1825 at Morgedal in Kviteseid, Telemark, and his death as 9 March 1897 in North Dakota, where he is buried at Denbigh.

SNL counts him among the leading pioneers of modern skiing. It credits him with shorter skis with sidecut and with bindings of willow withes wrapped round the heel, which together made skis usable for play and competition and not only for travel, and calls him a pioneer of ski jumping and of hill running. It also says that the nickname "father of modern skiing" is now considered exaggerated.

The heritage site sondrenorheim.com, run by Anne-Gry Blikom and Eivind Molde, adds two cautions of its own: reports of willow heel bands exist from many years before Norheim, though they were not widely used, and it is not known whether he was the very first to make a Telemark turn.

The dates of his early work

The sources do not agree on when Norheim's innovations appeared. The ISHA timeline places his birch-root heel strap in the 1840s (credited to a 1996 source) and also at 1850 (uncited). Britannica, seen only in search summaries because its pages refused access, is reported to credit him with turns that became standard and to date his first parallel turns to 1850; that is unconfirmed.

Christiania, 1868

SNL says Norheim won a race at Iverslokka in Christiania, as Oslo was then called, in 1868, an event that combined cross-country, jumping and slalom. The Morgedal community site calls it the first national skiing competition and says Norheim, aged 42, beat competitors many of whom were about 20 years younger. sondrenorheim.com dates the event to 9 February 1868; no second source gives the day, so it is unconfirmed.

How far he travelled to get there is given two ways: about 190 km on foot, according to SNL, and about 200 km on skis over three days, according to the Morgedal site.

There is also a disagreement about the year he first showed his turns in the capital. The ISHA timeline lists a demonstration at a Central Ski Association event in Christiania in 1866 (credited to sources from 1983 and 1996) as well as the 1868 event. SNL and sondrenorheim.com give 1868.

The names Telemark and Christiania

This site does not describe how any turn is made; that is learned from a qualified instructor. What the sources say is where the names came from and when they appeared.

• Both turns take their names from places: Telemark, Norheim's home county, and Christiania, the old name of Oslo, where they were shown in 1868 (sondrenorheim.com; SNL).
• sondrenorheim.com says that at the 1868 event Norheim showed, for the first time outside Telemark, the Telemark turn and the turn later called the Christiania, and that the Christiania name dates from 1901, when a set of skiing rules was drawn up.
• A Norwegian local-history wiki entry, seen only in a search summary because the site refused connection, says both turns were called Telemark turns until 1901 and that Norheim, even if he was not the originator, got much of the credit for the turn that took the Christiania name. That is unconfirmed.

Which turn came first is disputed. Popular accounts present the Telemark as the original ski turn. The WildSnow ski-mountaineering timeline by Lou Dawson, seen only in a search summary, says the Christiania, Telemark and stem turns were all used and developed in the same period, in Norheim's circle in the 1850s. Neither version is settled by the sources read.

Norheim in America

SNL says Norheim emigrated to the United States in 1884, after his farm was auctioned in May that year. He settled first in Minnesota and then near Villard, North Dakota, and received his land in 1891. A U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame page, summarised in search results but not loaded because of a redirect loop, is reported to list his election to the then U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1974; that is unconfirmed.

Huseby, Skiforeningen and Holmenkollen

SNL's articles trace the Holmenkollen races to an earlier event at Huseby:

The founding year of the national federation is given two ways. SNL dates Norges Skiforbund to 1908. The ISHA timeline lists a "Norwegian Ski Federation founded" in 1879, credited to Vaage, alongside the first Huseby competition; what that entry refers to is unclear, and this site uses SNL's 1908 for the federation. A search summary of Wikipedia says the ski museum was started by the architect Hjalmar Welhaven, whose collection formed its core; the museum's own page on this was not read, so it is unconfirmed. SNL also records when women first raced at Holmenkollen, which is on women in skiing.

Huitfeldt and Nansen

Two more Norwegian names appear in the sources for the 1880s and 1890s:

• Fritz Huitfeldt. The ISHA timeline lists 1894 as the year he invented and patented his toe-iron binding (credited to Torgersen). SNL says his ski model of 1896, based on a Telemark ski type, became the standard for later development.
• Fridtjof Nansen. The ISHA timeline lists his crossing of Greenland on skis in 1888 and his 1890 book on it, which it says inspired many Central Europeans to take up skiing. How that played out in the Alps is on the Alps and the ski schools.

Norwegian immigrants also founded the club at Ishpeming, Michigan, that launched the American national association in 1905; that story is on FIS and Chamonix 1924.