Mountain FM

For at least 150 years, alpine skiers have been attaching two pieces of wood to their feet and throwing themselves down steep hills. 

Following the end of the Second World War, there was a systematic development of ski sport for persons with a disability, as injured ex-servicemen returned to the sport they loved. 

Biathlon — which combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting — did not start as a sport, but as a way for northern European hunters, as early as 2000 BC, to put food on the table.

Biathlon was first introduced in the 1988 Paralympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria.

 The three Olympic sliding sports are bobsleigh, skeleton and luge.

Paintings thought to be at least 6,000 years old, discovered in Russia in the 1930s, show a hunter alongside some reindeer.

 In both biathlon and cross-country skiing, athletes are categorized as standing, sitting or visually impaired and compete against athletes with similar disabilities.

The game of curling is more than 500 years old.

An American, Jackson Haines, is considered to be the founding father of modern figure skating in the 1860s - established not in his home country, but in Vienna, Austria, where audiences loved his carefully choreographed ballet-influenced style.