100 Years Of Organised Alpine Ski Racing
The 18th of February 2010 marked the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the International Ski Commission and the centenary of the very first International Ski Congress that was held in Christiania (later renamed Oslo) on 18th February 1910.
The International Ski Commission was founded at its inaugural meeting by ten nations and was the organization that gave way to the Federation International de Ski or the International Ski Federation (FIS) during the International Winter Sports Week – known in Olympic history as the 1st Olympic Winter Games – in Chamonix (FRA) in February 1924.
Currently focused on staging the XXI Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010, FIS has grown by 100 nations over these 100 years and now comprises 110 members. A commemorative book with a review of the first centenary of international skiing will be published at the time of the FIS Congress in Turkey in June 2010.
“The first International Ski Congress in 1910 represented an important first step for managing and promoting the sport of skiing globally. The last centenary has seen its great growth and rapid development which still continues unabated,” said FIS President Gian Franco Kasper. “We are pleased to begin our 2nd centenary here at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games where 40 of the 86 Olympic titles are awarded in Skiing.”
Skiing had grown throughout the last decades of the 19th century and National Ski Associations were created in Russia (1896), Bohemia (now the Czech Republic; 1903), Switzerland (1904), the United States, Austria and Germany (all in 1905), and Norway, Sweden and Finland (all in 1908). The national organization also increased the need to monitor the global development of skiing.
A statement by the Norwegian Ski Association on 2nd February 1909, said,
“Over the last ten years, we have noted a keen interest in developing the sport of skiing in many countries. We therefore believe that the time has come to found an International Ski Federation with a view to establishing approved rules for Jumping and to find the best way to resolve the problems of the amateur. We are convinced that the delegates from the different countries would like to see the competitions at Holmenkollen. Thus we propose to organize the Ski Congress within the context of the competitions. . .”
Delegates from ten nations agreed to attend. On 18th February 1910, Karl Roll, President of the Norwegian Ski Association, welcomed 22 delegates at Christiania, He was unanimously elected chairman of the meeting and German was chosen as the official language. The participating nations were Austria, Bohemia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
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