Ski-jumping as punishment?

Factual Questions
1

First of all, it’s good to be back.

This is a repost of a question I asked just before the crash. CalMeacham posted a response to it, but I never got a chance to see it.

Anyway, on the first day of the Olympics, I was watching the ski-jump trials when the station presented a quick quiz asking how ski-jumping got started. IIRC, the choices were:

a) as recreation for 17th-century nobles,
b) as a punishment for criminals,
c) as a coming-of-age ritual, or
d) as a wedding ritual.

They gave the answer as b (punishment), with no further explanation. Google, SDMB and Snopes searches all came up empty, as did my books on the history of torture and punishment.

So, does anyone know if there’s any truth to this story?

2

I can only confirm that you are not crazy, as that is what I heard on the TV also.

3

Sublight may not be crazy, but the guy who wrote the question, I’m not so sure about. Tradition has it that the first measured ski jump was taken in the mid-19th century by Sondre Norheim (you’ll also see it spelled Nordheim), from Morgedal, Telemark county, Norway. Nobody was punishing Sondre, history’s first recorded ski bum. He did stuff like that all the time, for fun, and any self-respecting Norwegian will tell you that he was “the father of modern skiing” - the man who took an ancient means of transportation and turned it into a sport.

4

As was discussed before the board went down, ski jumping was popularised by Sondre Nordheim (spelling differs), in the 1860’s.

He was by no means a criminal, nor a nobleman, just a carpenter who liked skiing.

And now I see that flodnak beat me again…

5

My response was this:

Scandinavian #1: Come on! Get up and keep your legs together this time!

Scandinvian #2: It’s not that hard.

(THey grab the criminal, who has primitive skis tied to his feet, and push him toward the incredibly long ski jump. He cries out and falls over on his side. Again.)

Scandinavian #1: By Odin’s Beard! How hard can this be! You’re not trying!

Scandinavian #2: Yeah. At this rate you’ll NEVER learn to ski!

Based on what I’ve een of beginning skiers, and considering the condemned guy’s motivation to ski well enough to even get to the ski jump, it seems to me more likely that they’d just bludgeon the guy to death.

6

Thanks for the replies. I guess that clears things up.

CalMeacham, I was thinking the same thing. I always found it impossible to stay upright on even a gentle slope, and I actually wanted to. I couldn’t really see how you could force someone to do it against their will.

Now then, the Japanese log-sledding ceremony, that I could see originating as a punishment.