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5 winter Olympic sports: How it all began
(Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
As the Olympic Games really get rolling, find out the stories behind how snowboarding, curling, skeleton, figure skating and ice hockey got their start.
Snowboarding
A sign and trophy from the 1981 National Snurfing Championship sit on display at the Colorado Ski Museum.(AP Photo/Vail Daily, Dominique Taylor)
This sport is a definite crowd favourite thanks to the tricks and “big air” that riders catch. Snowboarding got its start back in 1965. A surfer named Sherman Poppen wanted to find a way to combine his love of surfing with snow. So he built a surfboard for the snow by bolting together two skis. He called the new equipment a snurfer — combining the words snow and surfer. Then he gave it to his daughter to try out. She loved it, and so did her friends. Soon Sherman began manufacturing the snurfer and sold over half a million of them in just one year. In 1968, he created the first ever snurfing competition at a ski resort in Michigan. And with that, snowboarding was born!
Curling
Two women curl at St. Moritz, Switzerland.(Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
In curling, two teams of four players each toss stones across the ice in the hopes of reaching the target circle. As for the early history of curling, it was played mostly in Northern Europe and Scotland from the 16th to 19th centuries. But people didn’t play on an indoor rink and there weren’t any strict rules. Instead, curling was more of a fun pastime that saw people sliding flat-bottomed rocks over frozen lakes and ponds.
By the early 1800s, the sport of curling came on the scene in Canada. At this point, it had set rules. And athletes didn’t just toss a stone along the ice and hope for the best. Curling became an organized sport that included using rounded stones and brooms on artificial ice with a target circle. The sport officially became an Olympic event in 1998.
Want to find out more? Check out 4 new sports at the 2018 Winter Olympics!
Skeleton
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A skeleton competitor on the Cresta Run at Saint Moritz, Switzerland in 1908. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
Imagine leaping onto a sled and plummeting head-first down a steep, icy track. Sound like fun? Then skeleton racing may be for you! This sport was invented in Switzerland in the mid-19th century. Legend has it that a group of British soldiers were sledding down a ski track in the Swiss town of St. Moritz when one of the men decided to try and beat everyone’s times by racing head-first. Since this method of sledding led to a faster speed, many others began to use the technique. Then, in 1892, an Englishman named L.P. Child designed the first metal skeleton sled and the sport took off from there.
As for the sport’s odd name? Some say the sled looked like a skeleton and that’s how the sport got its name. But others think the term skeleton comes from people incorrectly pronouncing the Norwegian word kjaelke, which means sled.
Figure skating
Norwegian ice-skater Sonja Henie on the ice at Chamonix during the Winter Olympics.(Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)
It’s thought that skating dates back to the 1200s, when the Dutch skated along frozen canals to travel from village to village. They carved bones and strapped them to their feet to create their skates. Eventually, skating became popular in England and soon artificial rinks began to pop up. Figure skating, which sees athletes perform spins, jumps and graceful, fancy footwork, soon became a popular pastime. It was a way to mix art and sport.
Two things helped figure skating grow to become one of the world’s most popular winter sports. First, an American man named Edward Bushnell invented steel-bladed skates. This helped figure skaters ace all those tricky turns and skilled movements on ice. Then, in the late 1800s, a dancer and figure skater named Jackson Haines introduced ballet techniques to his performances. He’s said to be the father of modern figure skating since he helped introduced dance and artistry to the sport.
Ice Hockey
An ice hockey match in Canada, circa 1930. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)
We Canadians know a lot about hockey. It’s our official national winter sport, after all! But as for where and when hockey got its start, that’s still a little uncertain. Some say it originated on the lakes of northern Europe in the 1500s. Others claim the birthplace of ice hockey is either Windsor in Nova Scotia, Kingston in Ontario or Montréal. In spite of this confusion, the game likely sprang from stick-and-ball games that were played in Europe.
And we can say for certain that the first game of organized ice hockey — the one with the rules we are most familiar with — was played in Montréal in 1875. And as for its name? The word hockey is believed to come from the French world hocquet, which means stick.
