Origins and History of Ice and Snow Sports

Humans first encountered the rudiments of winter sports 4,000 years ago, when Northern Europeans skidded across the snow in pursuit of prey. That’s today’s biathlon. About 800 years ago, skiing and skating became military skills in parts of Europe. Curling was brought to Canada and the United States by British immigrants in recent centuries, while Canadians evolved ice hockey from hockey. Ice Dancing became popular among the upper class of Europe. In 1876, the world’s first artificial indoor ice rink appeared in London, enabling ice sports to overcome dependence on weather and offer more comfortable viewing.

In 1901, the first Nordic Games was hosted by Nordic countries in Scandinavia. Later, international competitions for figure skating, speed skating, ice hockey and bobsleigh all began to emerge. This prompted the founder of the modern Olympic Games Pierre de Coubertin to consider the possibility of adding winter sports to the Olympic Games. Between 25 January and 5 February in 1924, the “International Winter Sports Week” was held in the small French town of Chamonix and attended by 16 national teams including those from the Nordic countries. In 1944, the first Winter Olympics held by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) emerged as the largest comprehensive Winter Games in the world.

China also has a long history of ice and snow sports. A rock painting believed to be made by primitive people in the late Paleolithic Age discovered in the Altai Mountains in Altay region in China’s northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region depicts people using skis and spears while hunting. Winter sports thrived in the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) in China. One silk painting from the era, “Bingxi Tu” (“Amusements on Ice”), is now housed in the Palace Museum in Beijing. It shows soldiers skating on the ice while shooting arrows and performing acrobatics on the ice.

Copyright: the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022– A Celebration on Ice and Snow, translated by Xing Yutang