Winter season is not only rich with holidays and a lot of free time. It’s a season of fantastic sports activities and fun. While you may think that winter time is not appropriate for sports, winter sports represent a special class in sports activities and are no less popular than basic sports. Such popular winter sports as skiing, ice hockey, snowboarding, sledding and many varieties of ice skating provide a lot of fun and physical activity. One of the most popular winter sports is skiing.Skiing represents an old and traditional to northern countries activity which includes a lot of Olympic disciplines. While for the most of the people skiing is a recreational sport, there are a lot of types of skiing used in professional sports. For example, Winter Olympic Games feature such disciplines as Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing, biathlon, ski jumping and also Nordic combined.
In spite of being widely-spread skiing as a winter sport appears only in the 19th century and in 20th century – as an Olympic discipline. The history of skiing begins four thousand years ago from the invention of the snowshoe – the kind of footwear that helped people in northern regions not to sink in snow and the first versions of skis were used in hunting, fishing, in military purposes or just traveling. Then just in 1850 in Norway the modern skiing appears and the first skiing competitions begin when the "father of modern skiing" Sondre Norheim invents the new design of skis that is used even today.
There are two major categories of skiing: Nordic skiing (Scandinavia) and Alpine skiing. Nordic skiing includes free-heel bindings attaching only to the skier’s toes. The Alpine skiing on the contrary is using bindings that are attached both to heels and toes.
Skiing is not as dangerous as it may seem – one or three injuries may occur per a thousand visits. The injuries can be avoided by using proper skiing equipment and by trying to ski at the safe terrain. A well trained professional can be found on each skiing place so if you have problems – feel free to ask, it’s better to spend your time on "silly questions" than lying in a hospital with serious injuries.
This winter sport requires some skills and it would be better if you have a little drill before you start. Having fun is the main in goal skiing and in other winter sports, so try take the most out of this great activity and you will not be disappointed.