Dear Ski friends,
Coming to Antalya and the upcoming FIS congress you will see a flag in the Congress Hall with a compilation of places having organized a congress, starting with Kristiania (NOR), 1910.
There we had the first meeting with countries coming together in order to create an association with intention to bring the ski sport together. At this time there only existed the sports ski -jumping, cross-country skiing and the combination of these sports that we today call the NORDIC ski sport.
There are not so many facts known about how and why FIS originated. Therefore I allow myself to write some remarks.
There has never been any doubt that Norway is the motherland of many forms of skiing activities. You also must not forget that once Norway and Sweden formed a union with the same king but also the same minister of foreign affairs, who was Swedish. This fact in time created more and more problems for the Norwegian business and Norway wanted to be independent.
Nordic Games in Stockholm
In October 1905, the union was dissolved and during the summer there were regular troops on both sides of the border. In the winter the same year, the second Nordic Games, a sort of a mini Olympic Games with speed and figure skating, ski jumping, cross-country skiing and even reindeer sports, were organized in Stockholm. The Norwegians were invited but could not come due to political reasons.
In 1908 both countries founded their national ski associations. The following Nordic Games in Stockholm would be carried out 1909. No invitation was however sent to Norway and the chief of competition in Fiskartorpet wrote "The committee did not invite the Norwegians after the refusal from them to accept the invitation in 1905".
After this introduction, I will mention words of the well-known ski historian Jakob Waage from Norway. In his article in "Norsk Skisport" 1980 under the Headline "The International Ski Federation (FIS) founded in Kristania 1910 in dramatic happenings".
1910 Holmekollen Ski Games
Norway was invited to international ski competitions in Morez and Chamonix (FRA) in 1909. In connection to this, letters were sent to other European ski associations with positive feedbacks. Norway sent Harald Durban Hansen to France where he was very popular after some sessions as skiing instructor.
At the prize giving ceremony, he read an invitation from the Norwegian ski association to come to the Holmenkollen Ski Games 1910, where an international federation should be founded. The present members from FRA, GER and SUI gave a strong support to this proposal.
The council of the Norwegian ski association decided to go further with the invitation and sent a letter to all associations of which they had addresses except Sweden. The Swedes reacted fast and sent the same letter but not to Norway. As no countries wanted to come to Sweden, a new invitation to a meeting in Zürich September 1, 1909 was sent, and the President together with Mr N. Thisell left for the meeting but they could not find any support.
The ski world sided with the Norwegians and in "Der Winter", a German ski magazine, you could read words written by Roessler Orovskyl "An International Ski Association without Norway (which is not invited) is a blamage for the entire world". Furthermore he wrote that all skiing nations including Sweden must give Norway a leading position if an association is founded.
Foundation of International Ski Federation
The meeting in Kristiania (Oslo) was headed by Karl Roll (NOR) and carried out in a friendly way. The meeting decided that the name should be "The International Ski Commission" and the Board should consist of three persons, two from NOR and one from SWE.
Personal Memory
At an official Holmenkollen dinner I was invited to a small coffee table where also King Olav and Jakob Vaage were sitting. It was very interesting and Jakob Waage started to examine the Rottefella binding and how it had changed the skiing history. King Olav told that he was forbidden to use them because his mother had seen that his ski shores were spoiled. After a long talk and some cognacs his adjoint came and told him: "Your majesty it is time to go now".
Yours,
Bengt Erik Bengtsson