2.3 29 The first skiing race in Italy took place in Bardonecchia, near Turin, in 1904. The other disciplines included in the 1924 Winter Olympics were ice-skating, ice-hockey, and bobsleigh. Can you guess where and when the first chair-lifts appeared in a ski resort? to bolt: imbullonare chair-lift: seggiovia cross-country (skiing): sci di fondo downhill: sci di discesa, discesa libera sideways: di lato slope: pendio, pista 58 TO GO SKIING AND SNOWBOARDING Skiing is the ultimate metaphor for life: you take risks, you fall, but you get back up. Deb Armstrong EARLY DAYS Skiing as a way of moving across a snowy land dates back to prehistoric times: ancient cave drawings in Central Asia demonstrate that people used skis during the last ice age, which began 100,000 years ago. Remains of skis were discovered in China and are believed to be from around 8,000 years BC. In Europe, the earliest fragments of skis were found in Karelia, a region on the border between Russia and Finland, and date back to 6,000 BC. When skiing became a sport Skiing as a sport developed in Norway in the 18th century, when soldiers of the Norwegian army started to compete on skis. Their competitions included shooting while skiing downhill, and cross-country skiing with full military backpacks. By the 1800s, skiing had become a popular sport and recreational activity: the first public skiing competition ever reported was held in Troms in 1843. The first downhill competition instead, a slalom race, took place in Sonnenberg, Germany, in 1905. In 1924, the first Winter Olympic Games were held in Chamonix, France; together with other winter disciplines , the games featured Nordic skiing, which included cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, and ski-jumping. Downhill skiing, whose popularity was steadily growing, was included in the 1936 Winter Olympics hosted in Germany. The origins of snowboarding The first modern snowboard is said to be the snurfer , created by engineer Sherman Poppen in 1965, to entertain his children. The snurfer, made of two skis bolted together, gained popularity when children began riding it sideways, like surfers on waves. Over the 1970s and 1980s, its design was modified, for example by adding foot straps, and its flexibility improved. The popularity of snowboarding has constantly increased since the 1990s, also due to its inclusion in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, which confirmed its status as a legitimate sport. Skiing and snowboarding today The invention and building of chair-lifts helped skiers to go up the slopes, making skiing easier and more popular as a leisure activity . Today, 125 million people in the world are estimated to practise skiing and snowboarding in over sixty-six countries. Resorts in the Alps (Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and France) are 35% of the whole number and count the highest number of visitors every year, while, outside Europe, skiing is widely practised in North America and China.