In the year 1886 the farmer’s son Sondre Auerson Norheim from Morgeddal (region Telemark, Norway) developed a new turn and filled the public with enthusiasm. Already at that time Norheim jumped legendary 30, 5 metres far and organised the first Nordic Downhill.
In the year 1888 the inhabitants of the capital Christiania, today’s Oslo, named this swing technique “telemark” when they were defeated in a ski comparison competition on “Huseby-Hill” by one of Norheim’s pupils, Torjus Hemmesveit. They gave it this name in order to avoid confusion with the swing technique from Christiania (parallel turn)!
From then on the telemark swing turn and the Christiania were continuously in competition with each other. Later on Norheim emigrated to America in order to teach also there the Telemark swing. At the turn of the century, the telemark technique from Norway and the parallel technique usual for us, which among other things was taught by Zdarsky, began to get into conflict with each other in the Alps. And that’s why skiing with the “free heel” was gradually falling into oblivion while this technique continued to exist without any interruption in Norway.