How Crazy Scandinavian Gold Miners began Speed Skiing in the 1860s.

If you think speed skiing is a fairly recent innovation, think again. While official records first began in 1932, the discipline of speed skiing as we know it dates back to 1874 when Tommy Todd reportedly reached 140 km/h (87 mph). Yet by that time crazy Scandinavian gold miners had already been speed skiing in the California mountains for several decades!

The California gold-rush brought many Scandinavian immigrant workers to settle in the Sierra Nevada mining towns, and with them they brought the concept of skiing. While skis were mainly used for transportation purposes, this did not prevent them from having a bit of fun! In February 1867 the first-ever organized ski race in America took place in La Porte, California. Although unofficial races had taken place for more than a decade. Often the miners would meet up in a saloon to decide on the course, the purse and to set a date. 

In what became known as Schuss (meaning to ski without making turns or checking your speed), competitors on 3.65m skis (12 feet) skied straight downhill reaching speeds of 100 km/h (62 mph) and were propelled forward by a giant pole. To make the race even more daring, skiers would start simultaneously in a “geschmozzel”-start followed by a race to the finish line where potential cash rewards awaited the lucky survivors. 

While the sport of speed skiing eventually evolved into individual starts, the concept of simultaneous starts was brought back in the twenty-first century by ski- and snowboard-cross. Just the way they raced 150 years ago!