Public Show Notes for VFTWT S02E06: The Winter Olympics

• 16th century Scotland, played on frozen lochs and canals

• History: According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the biathlon is rooted in the skiing traditions of Scandinavia, where early inhabitants revered the Norse god Ullr as the god of both the skiing and hunting. This tradition remained active and the first recorded use of ski troops dates back to the Battle of Oslo during the Norwegian Civil War, when reconnaissance troops were sent out on skis.
• Sport: Norwegian skiing regiments organized military skiing contests in the 18th century, divided into four classes: shooting at mark while skiing at top speed, downhill race among trees, downhill race on big hills without falling, and a long race on flat ground while carrying a rifle and military pack. In modern terminology, these military contests included downhill, slalom, biathlon, and cross-country skiing. In Norway, the biathlon was, until 1984, a branch of Det frivillige Skyttervesen, an organization set up by the government to promote civilian marksmanship in support of national defense.
• Olympics: Initially called military patrol, the combination of skiing and shooting was contested at the Winter Olympic Games in 1924, and then demonstrated in 1928, 1936, and 1948, during which time Norway and Finland were strong competitors. In 1948, the sport was reorganized under the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne et Biathlon and became re-accepted as an Olympic sport in 1955. The first Biathlon World Championship was held in 1958 in Austria, and in 1960 the sport was finally included in the Olympic Games. At Albertville in 1992, women were first allowed in the Olympic biathlon. The pursuit format was added for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, and the IBU added mixed relay as a format for the 2006 season.

  The competitions from 1958 to 1965 used high-power centerfire cartridges, such as the .30-06 Springfield and the 7.62×51mm NATO, before the .22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge was standardized in 1978.

Alpine Skiing

• Traced to prehistoric times in Russia, Finland, Sweden, and Norway

• Ski comes from the Norse word skid (sic) which means split wood or split firewood.

• Skis were invented to help cross wetlands, marshlands, and other frozen areas after they had frozen over in the winter.

• 1760 skiing was integrated into military training. (biathlon)

• 1850s is when downhill skiing supposedly started in its near modern form

  • skiing down hill and around trees to find the best in the military division (wiki)

• First downhill competition recorded to be held in Oslo, Norway in 1861

• Slalom comes from the norwegian word for sla (slope) and lam (trail)

  • literally trail on a slope

• Ski jumping came from this time period as well. Some competitions favored speed and agility down a technically difficult course (think trees, moguls, and other hazards) while others favored jumps for distance or flare.

Bobsled/skeleton/luge

• The first bobsleds were built in the late 19th century in St. Moritz, Switzerland, by wealthy tourists from Victorian Britain who were staying at the Palace Hotel owned by Caspar Badrutt. The early sleds were adapted from boys’ delivery sleds and toboggans. These eventually evolved into bobsleighs, luges and skeletons. Initially the tourists would race their hand-built contraptions down the narrow streets of St. Moritz; however, as collisions increased, growing opposition from St. Moritz residents led to bobsledding being eventually banned from public highways. In the winter of 1884, Badrutt had a purpose-built run constructed near the hamlet of Cresta. The Cresta Run remains the oldest in the world and is the home of the St. Moritz Tobogganing Club. It has hosted two Olympic Winter Games and as of 2014 was still in use.

• Cool Runnings

  • Jamaica Bobsled team in this olympiad

Skating

• Figure

  • The history of figure skating

    stretches back to prehistoric times. Primitive ice skates appear in the archaeological record from about 3000 BC. Edges were added by the Dutch in the 13th and 14th century. International figure skating competitions began appearing in the late 19th century; in 1891, the European Championships were inaugurated in Hamburg, Germany, and in 1896, the first World Championship were held in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire. At the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, England, figure skating became the first winter sport to be included in the Olympics.

• Speed

  • Longtrack

  • Short track

Hockey

• Believed to have roots in middle ages stick and ball games played in England that matured into a form of field hockey that we see in the Summer Olympic Games.

• Field Hockey turned into a game called Bandy that utilized sticks to move a ball across a frozen pond into a goal that the other team is trying to protect.

• 1875 the first indoor ice hockey game was played in Montreal, Canada.

  • instead of a ball they used a flattened wooden “puck” to keep it from going air born and flying into the spectators and causing people to be injured.

• Followed Hockey Association rules (governing body of field hockey) until around 1880.

• 1888 Lord Stanley of Preston, the governor general of Canada, came to a Montreal winter festival and was impressed with the sport.

  • Realized that there was no trophy awarded to the best team in Canada and rectified that by purchasing a silver cup that he would give to the best team in the country (1892)

• Slowly spread around the world, America embraced the sport first having played a similar game they called “ice polo” which utilized a ball instead of a puck.