When it’s cold and snowy outside then there are two things you can do. You can wrap yourself up in a warm blanket, make yourself some hot coco, and sit around binging television shows all day. Or, there are those who are more adventurous, fit, and in touch with nature, who the second they see snow they think to themselves “I have GOT to get myself to a mountain and do some skiing!”
Skiing is something which humans have been doing for at least five thousand years! In fact, when humans first began moving to the snowier, more mountainous areas of the world, such as the Caucuses, the Alps, the Urals, and the Xinjiang region of China. In fact, there are 10,000 year old cave paintings of ancient humans moving around on the snow on skis!
The word “ski” comes from the language of the Vikings, Old Norse. As it turns out, the Old Norse word “skio” meant “a split piece of wood.” We have adopted that word into English as ski as a result of English speakers’ contact with the Vikings. In fact, in the Norwegian language, they still use the word “ski” to refer to split pieces of wood!
However, it would not be until 1843 when the first ever ski competitions were held. A group of people in the far northern town of Tromso, Norway decided to have a competition to see who could go down a mountain the fastest, and they invited the locals to come and watch and bet on who would win the race. And thus, professional skiing – and the hobby as we know it today – was born.
In fact, women have been involved in competitive and pleasure skiing ever since its inception in Norway in the mid-1800s, and there were all women ski clubs in the country dating back to the late 1800s.
Skiing was eventually added to the winter olympics, and has been one of the staples of the games since its inception. In fact, professional skiers, especially professional female skiers, are some of the biggest sports stars on the European continent.
They are strong, motivational, and inspiring role models that both girls and boys alike can look up to for strength and guidance. Also, their job is just so cool!
We would like to take after our neighbors from across the pond and show you some of the best female skiers America has to offer. For instance…
[post_page_title]Julia Mancuso – Then[/post_page_title]
Julia Mancuso is originally from Reno, Nevada and began making her rounds on the international skiing stage back in 1999 at the age of 15. She got noticed by world famous ski coach Patrick Rooney. She would train with him for several years before finally winning her first three golds at the Junior World Ski Championships for Downhill, Giant Slalom, as well as the combined competition. She would go on to win several more gold medals in the Junior World Ski Championships in the following years.
