HISTORY OF SKI JUMPING
Considered the world’s first sliding sport, skeleton was started in the Swiss town of St. Moritz in the late 1800s. The first competition was held in 1884. Riders raced down the road from St. Moritz to Celerina, where the winner received a bottle of champagne. It was not until 1887 that riders began competing in the prone position used today. The sport received its name in 1892, when a new sled made mostly of metal was introduced. People thought it looked like a skeleton.
In 1923, the Federation Internationale d Bobsleigh et Tobagganing (FIBT) was founded. Three years later bobsleigh and skeleton were declared Olympic sports.
Skeleton had been a part of the Winter Olympics on only two occasions, in 1928 and 1948, both times in St Moritz, the Swiss town which was the birthplace of the sport back in the 1800s.
However, at Salt Lake 2002, the men’s event returned to the official program and for the first time a women’s event was included.
|
