40 Fun Facts About Orienteering

Orienteering began in late-19th-century Sweden as map-and-compass training for which group of people?

Army officers ran the first race, at the Stockholm garrison's yearly meet in 1893. The word itself had been coined seven years earlier at the Karlberg military academy.

Which colour joins white on the three-sided flags that mark control points at orienteering events worldwide?

Orange took over from red: the earlier specification for the flag was white and red. Each face of the modern one is a square about 30 cm across.

On an orienteering map, where green means thick vegetation that slows a runner, what does plain white show?

Runnable forest is left white, which surprises walkers used to green woods. On these maps the darker the green, the thicker and slower the going.

Which kind of terrain is printed yellow on an orienteering map, with the brightest shade for the clearest ground?

Open land is yellow, and the shade matters: bright yellow is a lawn you can race across, while pale yellow is rough meadow with tall grass.

The parallel lines printed across every orienteering map are aligned to what, sparing runners any compass correction?

Magnetic north is where a compass points, so a map drawn to it lets a runner take a bearing straight off the paper with no adjustment for declination.

Which long-distance team navigation sport is named after three of its founders, Rod, Gail and Neil Phillips?

Rogaining stitches together Rod, Gail and Neil. Championship events last 24 hours, with teams of two to five choosing which checkpoints to visit.

Radio orienteers hunt hidden transmitters with a handheld receiver; which animals give the transmitters their nickname?

Foxes is the name for the transmitters, and the sport is often called foxhunting. The map shows only the start and finish, so the radio signal does the rest.

Which shape, overprinted in the same colour as the numbered controls, marks the start on an orienteering map?

A triangle marks the start, and it is the first thing a runner hunts for, because the map is normally handed over only as the clock starts.

Brown contour lines packed tightly together on an orienteering map warn a runner that the ground ahead is what?

Steep ground squeezes the contours together because each line marks a fixed height step, normally 5 metres on an orienteering map.

Which small safety item do most national orienteering bodies recommend that every competitor carries on a course?

A whistle is the standard safety item, and it is about the only kit the sport asks for besides a compass and suitable outdoor clothing.

The compass style that caught on among orienteers in the 1980s straps to which part of the hand?

Thumb compasses pin the compass to the hand that holds the map, so both are read as a unit. Most carry few or no degree markings.

A runner who sets a compass bearing of 90 degrees and follows it is heading in which direction?

East sits a quarter-turn clockwise from the top of the dial, because the four cardinal points are spaced 90 degrees apart.

Which symbol on an orienteering map shows where the course ends and a competitor's clock is stopped?

A double circle marks the finish, and every starter must report there even after giving up, so that organisers know nobody is still out on the course.

Which colour is used to overprint the course itself, with its numbered controls, on an orienteering map?

Purple marks everything that belongs to a single event, including temporary hazards such as out-of-bounds fields, because none of it is a permanent feature of the terrain.

Which orienteering race format, usually won in about 12 to 15 minutes, is often held in city parks and streets?

Sprint races joined the world championships in 2001. They use larger-scale maps on which benches, sculptures and litter bins can all serve as control sites.

Mountain bike orienteers read the map while riding, so where is their rotating map board fixed?

On the handlebars is the standard spot, and most holders let the map rotate. Ski orienteers wear theirs strapped to the chest instead.

Night orienteering often adds what to each control flag to help runners find it in the dark?

Reflective markers change the tactics: runners can move fast to the right area, then sweep it with the lamp until the flag flashes back.

What do orienteers call a fence, stream or path that they follow as a guide along part of a route?

A handrail is any line feature used as a guide. Advanced courses offer subtler ones, such as a ridge or the edge of a marsh.

A good orienteering compass has a capsule filled with oil or alcohol rather than air; what is the liquid for?

To steady the needle: the liquid damps its swing, so a runner can read the compass without standing perfectly still.

Which compass brand did the Kjellström brothers and Gunnar Tillander found in Sweden in the early 1930s?

Silva grew out of Tillander's 1928 idea of building a protractor into a see-through baseplate, so that a bearing could be taken straight from the map.

Which Stockholm major, who staged a 220-runner meet in 1919, is known across Scandinavia as the Father of Orienteering?

Ernst Killander was a Scout leader who saw the sport as a way to draw young people into athletics, and he went on to shape its early rules.

The first World Orienteering Championships, in 1966, took place in which Finnish village known for its scissors?

Fiskars staged only an individual race and a relay, and all eleven nations that came were European.

Which night relay, named after a family in the novel Seven Brothers, is the biggest orienteering relay in the world?

Jukola starts at about 11 pm as the June sun sets, and its seven runners per team race through the night until early on Sunday morning.

Thierry Gueorgiou contributed to all 14 world orienteering golds won by which country before he retired in 2017?

France has him to thank for all of them: Gueorgiou took his first world medal in 2003 and dominated the men's sport for more than a decade.

Which Swiss orienteer won 23 World Championship gold medals between 2001 and her retirement in 2013?

Simone Niggli-Luder won all four women's golds at the 2005 championships in Japan. Her total of 23 stood alone until Tove Alexandersson matched it in 2025.

Which orienteering discipline judges accuracy rather than speed, so wheelchair users compete on equal terms?

Trail-O competitors stay on the path and decide from a distance which of several flags matches the map. At elite level the right answer can be that none of them does.

In which orienteering format do competitors collect as many controls as they can, in any order, before a time limit?

Score events give harder controls more points and take points away for every minute late, so the winner is whoever plans the smartest loop.

Relay teams run the same course sections in different orders so nobody can simply follow; what is this method called?

Forking is a translation of the Swedish word gaffling, and the rule behind it is that every team has covered every section by the end of the race.

Which word do orienteers use for a small valley, shown by contour lines bending back into a hillside?

Re-entrant contours make a U or V pointing back into the hill, where rain would gather and run downhill. Its opposite, a ridge that sticks out of the hill, is a spur.

Which number, displayed at each checkpoint, should an orienteer check against the description sheet before punching?

The control code proves the flag is yours. Several courses are usually out at once, so a flag showing a different number belongs to someone else's.

Which blunt nickname do orienteers give the darkest green on a map, vegetation that is almost impassably overgrown?

Fight is the top grade of green: lighter shades mean slow running, darker ones difficult running, and the darkest is close to impassable.

Which nickname do orienteers give the SPORTident stick, worn on a finger, that records each control electronically?

Dibber is one of several names, along with e-card and fingerstick. It stores the time of every visit, to be read by a computer at the finish.

The first public orienteering race in Sweden, held near Stockholm in 1901, used which landmarks as two of its controls?

Churches at Bromma and Spånga served as controls, alongside two large farms. Purpose-drawn orienteering maps were still decades away.

Orienteering is not an Olympic sport, but since 2001 it has been part of which international multi-sport event?

The World Games took orienteering in 2001. The sport's governing body has also been recognised by the International Olympic Committee since 1977.

On a 1:10,000 orienteering map, one centimetre on the paper stands for what distance on the ground?

100 metres to the centimetre is a far larger scale than most hiking maps use, which leaves room for a waist-high boulder to get its own symbol.

What do orienteers call an obvious feature near a control where they slow down and start navigating precisely?

Attack point is the A in CAR, a routine taught for planning each part of a course: pick the control, then the attack point, then the route.

Which technique means steering deliberately to one side of a control on a fence, so you know which way to turn?

Aiming off turns a small compass error into a certainty: reach the fence knowing the flag lies to your left, say, and there is no guessing which way to search.

Which nickname do orienteers use for the three-sided fabric flag that hangs at every control on a course?

Kite is the usual word among orienteers. On permanent courses, kept in place for training, the kites give way to permanent ones of no standard design.

On the last day of Sweden's O-Ringen, whoever leads sets off first and rivals follow by time gap; what is this called?

Chasing start means the first runner across the line on day five has won the whole week, with no waiting for times to be added up.

Which item of dress do British orienteering rules make compulsory for events held in woodland or forest?

Full leg cover is a British and Irish rule that other English-speaking countries do not share, and shorts are still allowed at most urban races.