Orienteering: Difference between revisions

Following World War II, orienteering spread throughout Europe, Asia, North America, Australia, and [[New Zealand]].  The first orienteering event held in North America took place in November, 1941 at [[Dartmouth College]], in [[Hanover, New Hampshire]], [[USA]], organized by Piltti Heiskanen, a visiting student from Finland.  Bjorn Kjellstrom (d. 1995), a Swedish orienteer and co-founder of compass manufacturer Silva Sweden AB, moved to the United States in 1946 to found the U.S. operations of The Silva Company (later Silva, Inc.).  Kjellstrom brought his love for orienteering with him, inaugurating Silva Orienteering Services to provide training and company sponsorship for the sport.  With Norwegian Harald Wilbye, Kjellstrom would help found a U.S. orienteering club in 1967 that became one of the largest and most active orienteering clubs in the United States.<ref name="boga_3">Boga, Steven (1997). ''Orienteering: The Sport of Navigating with Map & Compass''.  Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, USA: Stackpole Books.  ISBN 0-8117-2870-6. p. 3-4.</ref>  The Canadian Orienteering Federation was also founded in 1967, and the first Canadian national orienteering championship was held at Gatineau Park in [[Ottawa]] on August 10, 1968.<ref name="kirk">Kirk, Colin (2006). [http://www.orienteering.ca/HISTORY.htm "History of the Canadian Orienteering Federation"].  Retrieved Feb. 22, 2006.</ref>  The only [[World Orienteering Championships|World Championship]] to be held in North America took place at [[West Point]], New York, [[USA]] in 1993.

Sixty-seven different national orienteering federations are member societies of the IOF today.<ref name="iof_nations">[[International Orienteering Federation]] (2006).  ''[http://www.orienteering.org/ National Federations]''.  Retrieved Feb. 19, 2006.</ref>  World championships were held biannually from 1961 to 2003, and are now held every year.  [[Jukola relay]] and [[Tiomila]] have both been held since the 1940s. The largest individual orienteering meet, [[O-Ringen]], has been held annually since 1965 and attracts around 15,000 athletes to compete in the Swedish forests.  There are new variations of the sport, including ski orienteering, mountain bike orienteering, trail orienteering, canoe orienteering, and [[ARDF|radio orienteering]] that attract diverse communities of athletes.  The sport has been dominated by the Nordic nations and Switzerland, but increasingly France, [[Great Britain]] and several Eastern European countries are making their mark. Outside Europe, Australia and [[New Zealand]] are the most developed orienteering nations.  With the death of Bjorn Kjellstrom and the absence of active corporate sponsorship, U.S. orienteering has remained somewhat moribund in terms of participation in recent years.