Ski-orienteering

Ski orienteering (SkiO) is a cross-country skiing endurance winter racing sport and one of the four orienteering disciplines recognized by the IOF. A successful ski orienteer combines high physical endurance, strength and excellent technical skiing skills with the ability to navigate and make the best route choices while skiing at a high speed.

Standard orienteering maps are used, but with special green overprinting of trails and tracks to indicate their navigability in snow; other symbols indicate whether any roads are snow-covered or clear. Navigation tactics is similar to mountain bike orienteering. Standard skate-skiing equipment is used, along with a map holder attached to the chest. Compared to cross-country skiing, upper body strength is more important because of double poling needed along narrow snow trails.

Ski orienteering events

Ski orienteering events are designed to test both physical strength and navigation skills of the athletes. Ski orienteers use the map to navigate a dense ski track network in order to visit a number of control points in the shortest possible time. The track network is printed on the map, and there is no marked route in the terrain. The control points must be visited in the right order. The map gives all information the athlete needs in order to decide which route is the fastest, including the quality and width of the tracks. The athlete has to take hundreds of route choice decisions at high speed during every race: a slight lack of concentration for just a hundredth of a second may cost the medal. Ski orienteering is time-measured and objective. The clock is the judge: fastest time wins. The electronic card verifies that the athlete has visited all control points in the right order.

Orienteering

Orienteering is a family of sports that requires navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain, and normally moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a specially prepared orienteering map, which they use to find control points. Originally a training exercise in land navigation for military officers, orienteering has developed many variations. Among these, the oldest and the most popular is foot orienteering. For the purposes of this article, foot orienteering serves as a point of departure for discussion of all other variations, but basically any sport that involves racing against a clock and requires navigation using a map is a type of orienteering.

Orienteering is included in the programs of world sporting events including the World Games (see Orienteering at the World Games) and World Police and Fire Games.

Orienteering sports

Orienteering sports combine significant navigation with a specific method of travel. Because the method of travel determines the needed equipment and tactics, each sport requires specific rules for competition and guidelines for orienteering event logistics and course design.

World Ski Orienteering Championships

The World Ski Orienteering Championships (Ski-WOC) is the official event to award the titles of World Champions in ski orienteering. The World Championships is organized every odd year. The programme includes Sprint, Middle and Long Distance competitions, and a Relay for both men and women. The first Ski-WOC was held in 1975.

Host towns/cities

Classic/Long

This event was called "Classic distance" from 1975 to 1986. Since 1988 it is called "Long distance".

Men

Women

Short/Middle

This event was called "Short distance" from 1988 to 2000. Since 2002 it is called "Middle distance".

Men

Women

Sprint

This event was first held in 2002

Men

Women

Relay

Men

Women

Mixed Relay

See also

References

External links and references

FISU

FISU can refer to

Nordic

Nordic commonly refers to:

Nordic may also refer to:

Synonym for Scandinavian or Norse

Relating to a racial category

Sports