These athletes weren’t horsing around at the 1928 Winter Olympics. They were demonstrating a sport you might never have heard of—skijoring. In this sport, horses or dogs pull athletes on skis in a race around obstacles or on an oval track.
Skijoring originated hundreds of years ago in Scandinavia—a region that today encompasses Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. People there used the sport as a form of transportation across snowy terrain, but they were pulled by reindeer, not horses.
By the early 1900s, skijoring with horses had become a competitive sport in parts of Europe. The races grabbed the attention of Pierre de Coubertin, a founder of the modern Olympic Games. Skijoring was given a spot as a demonstration sport at the 1928 Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Demonstration sports were an opportunity for countries to showcase their regional sports—and for those sports to possibly become official Olympic events.
De Coubertin hoped skijoring would prove popular enough to join the official Olympic roster, but its 1928 appearance was its only one. The sport didn’t disappear, though. People still compete in skijoring in parts of Europe and the Western United States today.
