The founders of the International Masters’ Championships, Earle Murphy, USA, and Guttorm Bakke, Norway, aimed in 1989 to create a master's platform and motivate all those who had ended their ski jumping and Nordic combined careers as young people and therefore never had a chance to be part of a team.

Earle Murphy

Guttorm Bakke

But were still connected to the sport and wanted to actively participate in the sport, to take up this sport again.  Many known and unknown ski jumpers and Nordic combiners from all over the world were activated again.  At every annual master’s world championship do we see each other again and meet new athletes. The creation of an individual cheerful atmosphere makes this master's competition so attractive.  The masters’ movement is like a big family, different from all similar formal organizational structures and business interests.  These extraordinary sports competitions are embedded in first-class traditions and classic cultural programming and actively serve international understanding.  They are flexible concerning the order of the competitions, but inflexible concerning the safety of the athletes.  That is the IMC's requirement of every organizer.  The basis of every event is the IMC regulations.  The international IMC family is neither subject to the requirements of the national organizations nor the FIS.  However, every master has to belong to a sports club in his country.