People began strapping skis to their feet as far back as 5000 years ago. It is believed that Norwegians were the first they used skis as a way of hunting across snowcovered terrain. From Norway, skiing spread throughout Scandinavia and Russia as a mode of winter transportation and eventually as a sport similar to crosscountry skiing. Alpine skiing evolved from crosscountry skiing. The first alpine skiing competition, a primitive downhill, was held in the 1850s in Oslo. A few decades later, the sport spread to the remainder of Europe and to the United States, where miners held skiing competitions to entertain themselves during the winter.

Website: http://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/programme/disciplines_uk.asp?DiscCode=AS