The 2nd February, 1924. In the shadow of Mont Blanc in the French Alps, delegates from across Europe gathered in Chamonix's grand Hotel Majestic. There, they marked the birth of a new organization - and a new future for snow sports.

For millennia, people had been using skis to traverse the snow. For centuries, they had been skiing for pleasure. For decades, athletes from across the world had gathered to compete at races. For years, there had been talk of putting international competition on a firmer footing. Finally, in Chamonix, it came to pass.

The delegates came from all corners of Europe: from Scandinavia to Czechoslovakia, Britain to Austria. While cooperation between these nations may have stretched back decades - the International Ski Commission had been operating since 1910 - the great convulsion of the First World War had convinced many that something different was needed.

In the words of Henry Cuenot, a driving force behind international cooperation, "the state of the sport" required "a complete ski organization which will assure its most rapid expansion..."

Chamonix was the first gathering of this "complete ski organization". In the chill of the Alpine winter, passions ran hot. The first debate was over the name of the new federation. Should it be in German, Swedish, Norwegian? British delegate Sir Harry Brittain made the diplomatic suggestion that since the French were hosting, the title should also be French.

Agreement was reached ; the Fédération Internationale de Ski was coined; FIS was officially born.

The delegates of all nations were united in hope for the journey ahead - but none would have dared imagine where that journey would lead: from a handful of races to thousands of events a year; from modest crowds of spectators to global audiences in the tens of millions; from a largely European entity to one which spans Asia, and the Americas, Africa and Australasia.

From 1924, it has been an extraordinary century.