Adaptive Skiing History

Adaptive skiing has been an advancement of human civilization in the 20th century. The history of skiing began over 7000 years ago. With the recent cultural shifts in viewing people with disabilities, there are far more options for people with disabilities for recreation. Along with advancements in technologies, Injured veterans have led the way for todays mono skiing and other adaptive skiing techniques. Skiing has become available to people with many kinds of disabilities but to understand how we got to today, we have to look at understanding the beginnings of skiing. The oldest ski’s ever found date back to between 8000 to 7000 BCE. (britanica). Although skiing has been around for thousands of years it was mainly used for war, hunting and
Different Adaptions had been made for different disabilities. A boom in injured veterans after the Vietnam war led to a rise in adaptive skiing here in Colorado. After WWII there had been a steady increase into the awareness of recreation for people with disabilities. Adaptive skiing was for people of many different disabilities including amputations, blindness and mental illness. The rehabilitation of wounded veterans was helped by organization like the National Sports Center for the Disabled. One of the many leaders in the disabled revolution is Hal O’Leary. Hal started in winter park ski resort and has helped the world wide growth of adaptive skiing. “Recreation. It is good for everyone. But for the person with a disability, it is a significant factor in eliminating the web of obstacles that restrict this person. Skiing can mean adventure,exercise, growth, development, self-respect and independence.” Skiing when viewed in this manner is considered wilderness therapy. Wilderness therapy has gained traction and is strong part of the recovery of disabled people. As advancements in perspective of disabled people and technologies got better there is only one technology besides the ski that has made this all possible. The chair lift changed skiing forever and led to the disabled being able to get to the top of a mountain in the first place,
A wise man once said “As every instructor knows, learning to ski is essentially mastering the use of special equipment and highly developed skills to overcome various natural difficulties. The skier uses attachments called skis to compensate for the inadequate length of his feet. He uses special boots as a supporting prosthesis to overcome the inadequate rigidity of his ankles. A skier must develop skills to keep him upright against the pull of gravity. When you consider the problems we have to overcome we’re all skiers with disabilities.” We are all disabled one way or another. Humans have developed technologies to allow us to do things that evolution has not given our bodies. To use the term adaptive skiing will eventually become as “normal” as