History
Nordic walking is defined as fitness walking with specially designed poles. While trekkers, backpackers and skiers had been using that basic concept decades before, the sport wasn't formally defined until the publication of "Sauvakävely" by Marko Kantaneva in 1997. Nordic Walking's concept was developed on the basis of off-season ski-training activity. This concept included the first description of the exercise, the instructions how to do it, the anatomical and physiological reasons to do it, and the specifications of the poles needed.
During the year of publication (1997) the first Nordic Walking poles were produced and marketed by Exel. The term Nordic Walking was coined and became internationally known in 1999 (through an Exel commercial flier). Exel introduced "carbon" poles to the ski industry and has a quality reputation in the ski industry. Exel was also the first company to introduced Nordic Walking Instructor training and certification courses world-wide.
Read more about this topic: Nordic Walking
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite!
There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries.”
—Edmond De Goncourt (1822–1896)
“What has history to do with me? Mine is the first and only world! I want to report how I find the world. What others have told me about the world is a very small and incidental part of my experience. I have to judge the world, to measure things.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
“Three million of such stones would be needed before the work was done. Three million stones of an average weight of 5,000 pounds, every stone cut precisely to fit into its destined place in the great pyramid. From the quarries they pulled the stones across the desert to the banks of the Nile. Never in the history of the world had so great a task been performed. Their faith gave them strength, and their joy gave them song.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)