SKI ORIENTATION

SKI ORIENTATION

Ski orientation (SkiO) is a snow sport that requires high physical strength, navigational ability and an excellent technical skiing ability with the ability to navigate and choose the best route, while skiing at high speed.

In orientation skiing the task of the athlete is mainly to choose the path from one beacon to another; first in the choice of route and then in staying on the chosen route, in order to visit a number of control points in the shortest time possible. The athlete has to make hundreds of high-speed route choice decisions. A slight lack of concentration for only one hundredth of a second can cost the medal. The clock is the judge: The fastest wins time. The electronic card verifies that the athlete has visited all the control points in the correct order.

The athletes only have a precise map and a compass, which shows the control of the points that must be visited in order. The map is designed to offer all the information that the competitor has to decide which is the fastest route, such as the quality of the slopes, the slope and the distance. The green lines on the map show a suitable path for the race on skis. Depending on the thickness and the continuity of the lines. 

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The International Orienteering Federation (IOF) has requested to include this modality in the 2018 Winter Olympics. In recent years, the orientation of skiing has grown considerably in terms of worldwide dissemination. The growth has been driven by the inclusion of ski orientation in the Asian Winter Games and the CISM Winter Military World Games. Some 35 countries are expected to participate in the World Skiing Orienteering Championship to be held in Sweden in March 2011.

The World Championship is organized every odd year. The program includes Sprint, Medium and Long Distance competitions, and a relay for men and women. Each of which provide the counselor with characteristic tasks. 

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