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In the same
year in the course of Erzurum Kerim Hitli Fort set under the
leadership of Albert Bilstein who came from Austria, the
army engaged in skiing and the first skiers such as Arif
Hikmet Koyunoğlu Cemal Dursunoğlu, Kemal Hasip had been
brought up. A ski battalion composed of four companies was
founded in Erzincan in 1917. In the same period the first
ski school was set up in Suşehri (Buldur Village) by Hikmet
Koyunoğlu.
A Teacher
of Galatasaray High School skiing in Uludağ in 1933 boosted
activity to the sport and afterwards the ski activities
organised by Bursa Community Centre in Uludağ in 1933-1934,
Ankara Community Centre in Elmadağ and Erzurum Community
Centre in Palandöken had been important movements.
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The Development of
Ski Sport in TURKEY |
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The formal ski activities had
begun in 1935 with the conjuction of engaging to Mountaineering and the
Winter Sports Federation under the chairmanship of Latif Osman Çıkıgil
Riedel sports teacher of Ankara Master Institude of Agriculture. He was the
first man to introduce the sport of skiing fundamentally and trained the
first skiers. The first National Ski Team had been founded by one of his
pupils. Our skiers had joined the Olympic games in the same year with the
foundation of the Ski Federation in 1936. Turkish skiers could not succeed
due to their inexperience of the winter Olympic games in which the elite
skiers of the world participated. In the following years skiing had been
sensed as a fun game and become prevalent. The sport of skiing had been
awakened, the reason being Asım Kurt became the president of Mountaineering
and the Winter Sports Federation.The number of skiers began to increase
through the founding of ski centres especially in Uludağ, Erciyes and
Elmadağ. The first proper ski races reconised by the international
regulations were realised through the efforts of Asım Kurt in 1944. Though
they took part in Saint Moritz in 1948, Oslo 1952, Cortina d'Ampezzo 1956,
Squaw Valley 1960, Innsbruck Olympic Games in 1964 the Turkish skiers could
not be successful.
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The best grade in the
international field is 8th rank by Burhan Alankuş achieved at the Balkan
Championships. In the Balkan Championships organised in Uludağ, Rıdvan Özbek
from Sarıkamış became the Champion in Nordic Style Youth Categories. Our
team became third at the Balkan Ski Championships in the junior and the
senior mens categories. In 1981 the Balkan Championship Turkish Team (Young
men) got the bronze medal in 4x10 km relay . To improve the sport of skiing
in our country every year ski training and teaching courses and ski camping
trips for kids are being arranged. During half term every year to improve
ski sports , ski courses for 7-15 years of age groups are organised by the
Province Directorate of Youth and Sports in the provinces where ski sports
are made. Moreover, the major winter sports organisation for show purposes
in Turkey "The Snowman Ski Races" have been performed in Uludağ since 1983.
APPARENTLY SNOWBOARD WAS
INVENTED IN IKIZDERE AND NOT IN THE USA
Norway is considered the origin of skiing and Snowboard’s origin is USA. Is
it really true? Lean back and continue reading…
Century old skiing and its younger brother snowboarding... We might think
they came from the West to become a part of our culture. In fact, thorough
research shows they are not foreign to Turks.
Even though the Alp mountains of Switzerland and Austria are considered the
most famous places for ski lovers, until recently, Scandinavia was believed
to be the original place where skiing started. Numerous sources say skiing
began there and improved in time to accommodate the various needs of the
natives and then brought to Europe and North America in the 19th century.
The six thousand year old cave pictures depicting hunters on skis and
remnants of skis, along with scholars who link gods of Northern mythology ‘Skadi’
and ‘Ullr’ to skiing, are the elements which back this theory. In the light
of recent founding, new information surged… In a totally different part of
the world, in the Altai mountains of Central Asia,10 thousand year old cave
pictures were found. These cave pictures of Central Asia refute the belief
that travelling over snow on skis began in Scandinavia and was carried to
the world.
TURKS ON WOODEN HORSES
The ongoing excavations since 1993 by the Chinese archaeologists and experts
in the Altai Mountains where Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China and Russia
intersect, revealed earliest evidence of skis. In the Sincan Uyghur Ozark
region, natives make their fur coated skis the same way their forefathers
did thousands years ago. Archaeological finds of century old cave pictures
in the Dundebulak Valley backed this thesis and with the Altai Declaration
published in 2006, the region became known as the original place for skiing
which surpasses the ski history of Northern countries that was widely
acclaimed and accepted by scholars.
According to official Chinese documents of sixth and ninth centuries, the
people of that region were known as ‘’Turks with wooden horses’’. Today, the
Altai people call skiing ‘’riding on a wooden horse’’. We, their cousins of
the West, went into a heavy slumber for one thousand years after migrating
to Anatolia and forgot about this tradition despite the geography of
Anatolia which offers innumerable snow covered mountains. We must hurry
before it is too late and revive this thousand years old tradition before
global warming hits us. In the last four years thawing due to climate change
has greatly affected the snow covered region of Altai.
400 YEARS OLD TRADITION: LAZBOARD
We had to wait for our Austrian Allies’ officers of WW1 to train our
soldiers of the Eastern Front to get acquainted once again with skiing in
Anatolia. At the end of the 1980s, the 50-60 year old ‘’snowboard’’ became
fashionable in our country at the same time with the world. In recent years,
an expedition in the Kaçkar Mountains revealed snowboard was practiced there
four hundred years ago. Folks of Petran Village in Rize called it ‘’üzme
board’’ and later it got the popular name ‘’lazboard’. It was astonishing to
know that this board was used for recreational purposes rather than hunting.
In 2008, Jeremy Jones, the famous American snowboarder who came to Turkey to
make a documentary about ‘’Üzme Board’’. Just like the Altai natives’ fur
coated skis, we need to realize ‘’üzme board’’ is a part of our cultural
heritage. This might help to change the notion ‘’winter sports are for the
elite’’. Eventually with the spreading of winter sports, regional economic
capacities will increase.
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