Ski Jumping

I

Introduction

Ski Jumping, winter sport, part of the Winter Olympics programme, in which ski jumpers travel down a specially prepared steep hill, leap into the air from a take-off point, and “fly” through the air before landing on skis. Ski jumping forms one of the two parts of the Nordic combined event, along with cross-country skiing. More extreme than ski jumping is ski flying, where jumpers take off from larger hills. The current world record “flight” was set in 2005 at 239 m (784 ft).

II

Equipment and Clothing

Ski jumpers wear an all-in-one skintight suit, gloves, goggles, and a protective helmet. They wear boots that are low cut in front to facilitate the jumpers’ forward lean in flight; the boots are connected to the skis with bindings and with flexible connectors at the back, which provide stability in flight, especially from cross-winds. Ski jumpers’ skis are larger than those used in all other forms of skiing but have a maximum width of 11.5 cm (4y in).

III

Rules of the Sport

The jumper leaves a starting platform, then races down a prepared vertical surface, the “in-run”, to a take-off point; the distance of the jump is measured from the lip of the take-off to the place where the jumper's skis touch the snow on landing. Points are given both for the distance of the jump and for style of execution. To minimize the inevitable subjectivity involved in judging style, a complex system of evaluation is employed by the five trained judges. Two points are marked on the hill: the “norm point” and the “K point”. The former indicates the place on the hill where the jumper is expected to pass; the latter is the place from where the hill is measured, points are deducted if a skier fails to reach the K point and are added to the score for margins beyond it. Modern-day competition is on 90 m and 120 m hills, classified as K90 and K120 competitions.

Success in jumping depends more on the skier's balance and coordination than simply on the skier's jumping ability. The ultimate goal of the jumper is to remain motionless in flight followed by a precise landing, so that the movement from beginning to end may be viewed as one continuous whole. Traditionally, jumpers leant forward on their skis in flight, keeping their skis parallel and aiming not to topple over, or over-rotate. Since the late 1980s a new style has been developed that involves the skis being held in a V-position with the ski ends crossed; this style generates more lift than the parallel style. The ski jumper must land on parallel skis with one foot in advance of the other: this is known as the Telemark landing and properly executed gains a skier points.

In competition, each jumper makes two jumps and the combined highest total provides the winner. Team events are for four jumpers and their combined scores decide the winning team.

The governing body for ski jumping is the Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS), founded in 1924 and based at Oberhofen in Switzerland.

IV

History and Competition

The first recorded ski-jumping competition was held in Trysil, Norway, in 1862. The lengths of jumps have increased since then thanks to an improvement in equipment and the increase in the size of hills. Additionally, jumpers have modified their techniques. Early jumpers threw their arms forward at the moment of take-off and hung in the air, yet by the 1950s the style had evolved so that jumpers kept their arms by their sides, while still holding a forward-leaning stance. The Swedish jumper Jan Boklöv was responsible for introducing the V-shaped jump in the mid-1980s.

Ski jumping was introduced to the Winter Olympics in 1924 at Chamonix, France, with a large hill competition (until 1960 the large hill measured 70 m). In 1964 a second competition was introduced, the normal hill. Today the normal hill measures 90 m and the large hill 120 m. A team competition was instituted in 1988. The large hill measured 90 m that year and has been 120 m since 1992. World Championships are held every two years and there is also an annual World Cup series.

The most successful competitors have come from Finland, Norway, Austria, Germany, and Japan. Famous ski jumpers include the Finns Matti Nykänen and Toni Nieminen, the Austrian Toni Innauer, the German Jens Weissflog, and the Norwegian Birger Ruud. Nykänen is the only jumper to win three gold medals at a single Olympic Games (in 1988).