History of Orienteering - Spread Beyond Europe After World War II

Spread Beyond Europe After World War II

Following World War II, orienteering spread throughout Europe, and to North America, Oceania, and Asia. This spread was due in part to post-war travel by European orienteers, therefore more military people were using orienteering as part of a training method.

In North America, the first orienteering event took place in the United States, at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, in November 1941. It was organized by Piltti Heiskanen, a visiting teacher from Finland. Swedish orienteer and business man Bjorn Kjellström, who moved to the United States in 1946, had a major influence on the sport there. In 1967, Norwegian Harald Wibye founded the first U.S. orienteering club, the Delaware Valley Orienteering Association, which 30 years later was the largest orienteering club in the United States. In 1971, a group of orienteers led by members of the then four year old Quantico Orienteering Club founded the United States Orienteering Federation.

The Canadian Orienteering Federation was founded in 1967, and the first Canadian national orienteering championship was held at Gatineau Park in Ottawa on August 10, 1968. The only World Championship to be held in North America took place at Harriman State Park, New York, USA, in 1993.

In Australia, the first orienteering event was held in 1955.

Read more about this topic:  History Of Orienteering

Famous quotes containing the words spread, europe, world and/or war:

    We have seen when the earth had to be prepared for the habitation of man, a veil, as it were, of intermediate being was spread between him and its darkness, in which were joined in a subdued measure, the stability and insensibilty of the earth, and the passion and perishing of mankind.
    John Ruskin (1819–1900)

    I herewith commission you to carry out all preparations with regard to ... a total solution of the Jewish question in those territories of Europe which are under German influence.... I furthermore charge you to submit to me as soon as possible a draft showing the ... measures already taken for the execution of the intended final solution of the Jewish question.
    Hermann Goering (1893–1946)

    This is the way the world ends
    This is the way the world ends
    This is the way the world ends
    Not with a bang but a whimper.
    —T.S. (Thomas Stearns)

    There are not fifty ways of fighting, there’s only one, and that’s to win. Neither revolution nor war consists in doing what one pleases.
    André Malraux (1901–1976)