Women in skiing: the first races, discipline by discipline.

Early races and clubs

The sources record women racing in the Alps from 1903:

• 1903, St Anton. Helen Olsson's 2023 article in Skiing History, the International Skiing History Association (ISHA) magazine, says St Anton's trial races that year included races for women.
• 1924, Chamonix. The Canadian Olympic Committee says 11 of the 258 athletes at the Chamonix winter sports week, later counted as the first Winter Games, were women.
• 1929. The ISHA timeline lists the founding of the Schweizerische Damen Skiclub, a Swiss women's ski club; two women racing with the men in the downhill at the Zakopane championships (credited to the British Ski Year Book of 1929); and the founding of the first resort-based ski school in the United States by a woman, Katharine Peckett.
• 1931, Mürren. The ISHA timeline lists women's downhill and slalom at the first FIS alpine championships, won by the British skier Esmé Mackinnon.

The first Olympic events for women, by discipline

Alpine, 1936

Olympedia calls the women's alpine combined at Garmisch-Partenkirchen the first skiing event for women at the Winter Games. Thirty-seven athletes from 13 countries took part. Christl Cranz of Germany won, ahead of Käthe Grasegger of Germany and Laila Schou Nilsen of Norway, who was 16. Search summaries say women's downhill and slalom were first awarded separately at St Moritz in 1948, with Gretchen Fraser of the United States winning the slalom and Hedy Schlunegger of Switzerland the downhill; the IOC's page timed out, so that is unconfirmed. The ISHA timeline does record Fraser's 1948 medals as the first Olympic ski medals won by an American.

Cross-country, 1952

Olympedia says the women's 10 km at Oslo on 23 February 1952, held at Holmenkollen with 20 starters from eight countries, was the first cross-country event for women on the Olympic programme. Norway, the host, was the only nation to vote against including it. Finland's Lydia Wideman won, ahead of Mirja Hietamies and Siiri Rantanen. Store norske leksikon adds that women first raced at the Holmenkollen races themselves in 1954, in 10 km cross-country, and from 1966 over 5 km.

Ski jumping, 2009 and 2014

The Park Record reported that women's ski jumping made its World Championships debut at Liberec, Czech Republic, on 20 February 2009, won by Lindsey Van of the United States, the sport's first women's world champion, ahead of Ulrike Graessler of Germany and Anette Sagen of Norway. Store norske leksikon says women first jumped at the Holmenkollen races in 2000.

The Moscow Times reported on 6 April 2011 that the IOC Executive Board, meeting in London, added women's ski jumping to the Sochi 2014 programme, citing universality, gender equity and youth appeal. MPR News reported that the first Olympic women's event, on the normal hill on 11 February 2014, was won by Carina Vogt of Germany ahead of Daniela Iraschko-Stolz of Austria and Coline Mattel of France, and that the American Sarah Hendrickson was the first woman to jump in Olympic competition. MPR News also reported that women jumpers had been told their bodies could not handle the sport and that the women's sport was not developed enough. FIS named a women's large hill event among the ski jumping innovations at Milano Cortina 2026, and The Sports Examiner reported in July 2026 that a women's ski jumping super team was added for 2030.

Nordic combined

FIS says the first women's Nordic combined World Championship event was held at Oberstdorf on 27 February 2021 and won by Norway's Gyda Westvold Hansen, ahead of Mari Leinan Lund and Marte Leinan Lund. Women had already competed in Nordic combined at the Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Winter Games, which FIS says crowned the first female Olympic champion in the discipline.

The senior Olympics did not follow. FIS reported on 24 June 2022 that the IOC Executive Board had declined its application for a women's normal hill event at Milano Cortina 2026, citing a lack of participating nations and missing interest outside Europe, and that a first application, for Beijing 2022, had been declined in 2018. FIS called the decision "surprising and disappointing". Milano Cortina 2026 therefore had men's Nordic combined only. The Sports Examiner, relaying the IOC's announcement, reported on 7 July 2026 that Nordic combined was removed from the 2030 programme altogether; the IOC's own page could not be opened, so that report is unconfirmed here.

Cross-country distances

FIS named equal race distances for women and men in cross-country among its innovations at Milano Cortina 2026.

Women in FIS today

The FIS Statutes of 2026 require each gender to hold at least three seats on the FIS Council. FIS's About page, undated, gives its licensed and active athletes as 64.8 percent men and 35.2 percent women; an undated FIS factsheet, which appears to be older but carries no date, gives 63 percent and 37 percent. The page on the Olympic programme sets out the current events for women and men.