Alpine skiing reaches FIS and the Olympics.

The fight for recognition

The skiing at the 1924 Chamonix Games, where FIS was founded, was Nordic only, according to the compiled timeline of the International Skiing History Association (ISHA). Patrick Lang's 2024 history in Skiing History, ISHA's magazine, says Arnold Lunn, supported by the Swiss skier Walter Amstutz, fought to make FIS recognise downhill and slalom. The ISHA timeline gives Lunn's birth as 1888 and says he later set the rules for alpine slalom and downhill and co-founded the Arlberg-Kandahar race; that entry names no source.

A search summary of a FIS centenary page says the 1928 congress agreed that downhill and slalom should be trialled for two years before a final decision, an outcome it calls the "Peace of Oslo". That page now leads to an error, so the 1928 trial is unconfirmed.

Oslo, February 1930

FIS's own page on the 1930 congress is titled "The birth of Alpine Skiing". It says the 11th International Ski Congress met in Oslo from 24 to 26 February 1930, with 26 delegates from 15 countries, and records the debate:

• the Swiss delegate Karl Dannegger opened it and proposed supporting the British proposal;
• the Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish associations, which had met the previous afternoon, withdrew their opposition;
• the FIS president, Ivar Holmquist, moved an addition to paragraph 3 of the International Regulations saying that downhill and slalom races may be organised, and it was adopted unanimously;
• Lunn did not speak, but was visibly relieved at the result.

The Kitzbüheler Ski Club, organiser of the Hahnenkamm races, dates the Oslo agreement to 26 February 1930 and reported in 2017 that a copy of the first downhill and slalom rulebook of 1930, long thought lost, had been found by Raoul Imseng in a supplement to an old edition of the Swiss yearbook Der Schneehase.

Mürren, 1931

Lang says Mürren, in Switzerland, hosted the first Alpine FIS Championships in 1931, and that they were declared a World Championship retroactively in 1937. The ISHA timeline records women's downhill and slalom there too (see women in skiing).

The Kandahar and the Arlberg-Kandahar

The Kandahar Ski Club and the Arlberg-Kandahar race are dated differently by different sources:

• The Kandahar Ski Club, Mürren. Founded on 29 January 1924, according to the ISHA timeline (uncited), or 30 January 1924, according to a ski-holiday company's blog and a regional tourism summary.
• The first Arlberg-Kandahar, St Anton. Held on 31 March to 1 April 1928, according to the ISHA timeline (credited to Lunn's own 1952 account and a 1966 source), or on 3 to 4 March 1928, according to a snow-forecast website article and Wikipedia, both seen only as search summaries.

The separate question of whether Lunn's 1922 race at Mürren or Mathias Zdarsky's 1905 race in Austria was the first slalom is on the Alps and the ski schools.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 1936

The ISHA timeline lists Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936 as the first Winter Olympics with alpine events, with medals for the combined only. Olympedia says the IOC included alpine combined for both men and women after FIS had introduced the event at the 1932 World Championships.

The ski-teacher dispute

Olympedia sets out the dispute over the men's event. FIS had allowed ski instructors to compete in international events in 1932. But at its Oslo session in the winter of 1935, the IOC told FIS that paid ski instructors would not be allowed at the Winter Olympics. In protest, Austria and Switzerland declined to enter men's teams. Olympedia notes that the ruling hit Austria's 1935 world alpine combined champion, Toni Seelos, who coached the women's champion, Christl Cranz.

Two further points rest on search summaries only and are unconfirmed: that an archived IOC page says a few Austrians chose to represent Germany, and that the dispute helped keep skiing off the planned 1940 programme. The 1940 Games were not held.

The men's combined

Olympedia says the men's combined was held on 7 to 9 February 1936, with 66 competitors from 21 countries.

The women's combined, the first Olympic skiing event for women, is on women in skiing.

St Moritz, 1948

Search summaries of the IOC's St Moritz 1948 page and of Wikipedia say separate Olympic downhill and slalom medals were awarded for men and women for the first time in 1948, alongside the combined, with the men's downhill won by Henri Oreiller of France and the women's slalom by Gretchen Fraser of the United States. The IOC's site timed out every time it was tried, so these details are unconfirmed. The ISHA timeline does record Fraser's 1948 medals as the first Olympic ski medals won by an American.

The Hodler years and the World Cup

Lang says Marc Hodler was elected FIS president in 1951 and led it until 1998, and that the 1967 congress in Beirut adopted the World Cup idea. FIS's own page for that congress, held from 16 to 21 May 1967 with 74 delegates from 31 countries, records the recognition of the World Alpine Ski Cup.

Sapporo 1972 and the amateur question

Olympedia's overview of the Sapporo Games (3 to 13 February 1972) says the row over commercialisation that began at Grenoble 1968 erupted again at the start of Sapporo. The IOC president, Avery Brundage, insisted on ending commercialisation by skiers and singled out the Austrian skier Karl Schranz, who was expelled from the Games. Olympedia notes that 1972 was Brundage's last year as IOC president.

A Britannica summary, which could not be opened, is reported to say the IOC banned Schranz because ski companies paid him to test and develop their products, and that the IOC rejected Brundage's suggestion to dismiss about 40 skiers; that is unconfirmed. No IOC or FIS document dating the end of the amateur rule for Olympic skiers was found, so this site gives no date for it.

Alpine at the Games today

FIS listed ten alpine events at Milano Cortina 2026, five each for women and men: downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom and team combined, which FIS named among the Games' innovations. FIS named the Stelvio slope at Bormio for the men's races and the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre at Cortina. Results from those Games are on Milano Cortina 2026, and the rules of each alpine discipline are on alpine skiing.