Ski jumping

Ski jumping
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"Ski jump" redirects here. For the element of an aircraft carrier's flight deck, see Aircraft carrier#Ski-jump ramp.

Letalnica brothers Gorisek (Planica,

)

Letalnica (landing area)

Letalnica (inrun)

Ski jumping is a sport in which skiers go down an "inrun" with a take-off ramp (the jump), attempting to go as far as possible. In addition to the length that skiers jump, judges give points for style. The skis used for ski jumping are wide and long (240 to 270 centimetres (94 to 110 in)). Ski jumping is predominantly a winter sport, performed on snow, and is part of the Winter Olympic Games, but can also be performed in summer on artificial surfaces (porcelain or frost rail track on the inrun, plastic on the landing hill).

History

Ski jumping originates from Morgedal, Norway, but the first proper competition was held in Trysil in 1862. The first widely known ski jumping competition was the Husebyrennene, held in Oslo from 1879. The annual event was moved to Holmenkollen from 1892, and Holmenkollen has remained the pinnacle of ski jumping venues.

Competition

A ski jumper in Calgary, Canada.

Today, World Cup ski jumping competitions are held on three types of hills:

Normal hill competitions: for which the calculation line is found at approximately 80–100 metres (260–330 ft). Distances of up to and over 110 metres (360 ft) can be reached.
Large hill competitions: for which the calculation line is found at approximately 120–130 metres (390–430 ft). Distances of over 145 metres (480 ft) can be obtained on the larger hills. Both individual and team competitions are run on these hills.
Ski-flying competitions: for which the calculation line is found at 185 metres (610 ft). The Ski Flying World Record of 239 metres (780 ft) is held by Bjørn Einar Romøren, and was set in Planica, Slovenia in March 2005.

Amateur and junior competitions are held on smaller hills.

Individual Olympic competition consists of a training jump and two scored jumps. The team event consists of four members of the same nation, who have two jumps each.

Ski jumping is one of the two elements in the Nordic combined sport.

The Lake Placid Olympic Ski Jumping Complex

Summer Jumping

Ski jumping can also be performed on the summer on a porcelain track and plast grass combined with water. There is also many competitions on the summer. The World Cup (Summer Grand Prix) often includes those hills

Hinterzarten K-95
Courchevel K-120
Einsiedeln K-105
Klingenthal K-125
Zakopane K-120
Hakuba K-120
Pragelato K-125
Liberec K-120

Skijumping Fis-Cup and Continental Cup also have summer competitions and even more than the World Cup.

Women's ski jumping

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Currently, women ski jump internationally in the Continental cup. On May 26, 2006, the International Ski Federation decided to allow women to ski jump at the 2009 Nordic World Ski Championships in Liberec, Czech Republic and then to have a team event for women at the 2011 world championships. FIS also decided to submit a proposal to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to allow women to compete at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.¹

On November 28, 2006, the proposal was rejected by the Executive Board of the IOC. The reason for the rejection cited the low number of athletes as well as few participating countries in the sport. The Executive Board noted that women's ski jumping has yet to be fully established internationally.²

Currently there are over 135 athletes competing on an international level, which is more than snowcross and ski cross.^{citation needed} Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee states that they do not allow women ski jumpers in the Olympics because "We do not want the medals to be diluted and watered down," referring to the relatively small number of potential competitors in women's ski jumping.³ Meanwhile, the current record holder on Vancouver's 90 metres (300 ft) Olympic hill is US female jumper Lindsey Van. However this hill record was set with more inrun speed and with more wind than the men competed with. These two differences are a considerable advantage in ski jumping.

Scoring

The winner is decided on a scoring system based on distance and style.

Each hill has a target called the calculation point (or K point) which is a par distance to aim for. It is also the place where many jumpers land, in the middle of the landing area. This point is marked by the K line on the landing strip. For K-90 and K-120 competitions, the K line is at 90 metres (300 ft) and 120 metres (390 ft) respectively. Skiers are awarded 60 points if they land on the K Line. Skiers not landing on the K Line receive or lose 1.8 points for every metre (3 ft) they miss the mark by, depending on if they surpass it or fall short, respectively.

The view from the top of the ski jump in Salt Lake City, Utah for the 2002 Winter Olympics

In addition, five judges are based in a tower that lies to the side of the expected landing point. They can award up to 20 points for style based on: keeping the skis steady during flight, balance, good body position and landing.

The highest and lowest style scores are disregarded, with the middle three scores added to the distance score. In the individual event, the scores from each skier's two competition jumps are combined to determine the winner.

Technique

Using the modern V-technique, pioneered by Jan Boklöv of Sweden in 1985, world-class skiers are able to exceed the distance of the take-off hill by about 10% compared to the previous technique with parallel skis. Aerodynamics has become a factor of increasing importance in modern ski jumping, with recent rules addressing the regulation of ski jumping suits. This follows a period when loopholes in the rules seemed to favour skinny jumpers in stiff, air foil-like suits.

Previous techniques first included the Kongsberger technique, developed in Kongsberg, Norway by two ski jumpers, Jacob Tullin Thams and Sigmund Ruud following World War I. This technique had the upper body bent at the hip, a wide forward lean, and arms extended the front with the skis parallel to each other. It would lead to jumping length going from 45 meters to over 100 meters. In the 1950s Andreas Daescher of Switzerland and Erich Windisch of Germany modified the Kongsberger technique by placing his arms backward toward his hips for a closer lean. The Daescher technique and Windisch technique were the standard for ski jumping from the 1950s until the V-style technique was developed in 1985.

The skiers have to touch the ground in the Telemark landing style. This involves the jumper landing with one foot in front of the other, mimicking the style of the Norwegian inventors of Telemark skiing. Otherwise the style points will be reduced.

Popularity

Ski jumping facility in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

Ski jumping is popular among spectators and TV audiences in Scandinavia, Central Europe and Finland. Almost all world-class ski jumpers come from those regions or from Japan. Traditionally, the strongest countries (with consistently strong teams) are Finland, Norway, Germany (as well as the former East and West Germany), Austria, Poland, Slovenia, and Japan. However, there have always been successful ski jumpers from other countries as well (see list below). The Four Hills Tournament, held annually at four sites in Bavaria, Germany and Austria around New Year, is very popular and draws huge crowds.^{citation needed}

There have been attempts to spread the popularity of the sport by finding ways by which the construction and upkeep of practicing and competition venues can be made easier. These include plastic "fake snow" to provide a slippery surface even during the summer time and in locations where snow is a rare occurrence.

Notable ski jumpers

Currently active
Country	Flag	Name
Austria		Martin Höllwarth
		Martin Koch
		Andreas Kofler
		Wolfgang Loitzl
		Thomas Morgenstern
		Gregor Schlierenzauer
		Andreas Widhölzl
Czech Republic		Jakub Janda
Czech Republic		Roman Koudelka
Finland		Janne Happonen
		Matti Hautamäki
		Arttu Lappi
		Veli-Matti Lindström
		Harri Olli
Germany		Michael Neumayer
		Martin Schmitt
		Georg Späth
		Michael Uhrmann
		Andreas Wank
Japan		Noriaki Kasai
Japan		Takanobu Okabe
Norway		Lars Bystøl
		Tom Hilde
		Anders Jacobsen
		Roar Ljøkelsøy
		Bjørn Einar Romøren
		Sigurd Pettersen
		Anders Bardal
Poland		Stefan Hula, Jr.
		Adam Małysz
		Robert Mateja
		Klemens Murańka
		Kamil Stoch
		Tomislaw Tajner
Slovenia		Robert Kranjec
		Jernej Damjan
		Primož Peterka
		Rok Urbanc
Switzerland		Andreas Küttel
Switzerland		Simon Ammann
Russia		Denis Kornilov
Russia		Dimitry Vassiliev

Notable unsuccessful ski jumpers

/ Vinko Bogataj - Best known as "The Agony of Defeat" because the constant use of footage of his spectacular tumble in the title sequence of ABC's Wide World of Sports
Eddie 'the Eagle' Edwards - Popular favourite at the 1988 Winter Olympics

Notable female ski jumpers

Important venues

Ski jumping World Cup

DDR stamp - Memorial for the Skijumper

Four Hills Tournament

Nordic Tournament

Ski flying

Ski flying is an extreme version of ski jumping. The events take place in big hills with a K-spot of at least 185 metres (610 ft). There are five ski flying hills in the world today. Vikersundbakken in Vikersund, Norway; Oberstdorf, Germany; Kulm, Austria; Letalnica, Planica, Slovenia; and Harrachov, Czech Republic. The sixth hill, Copper Peak in the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, is currently disused, although there are plans to rebuild it to FIS standards.⁴ The biggest hill is in Planica, where all the longest ski jumps have taken place. It's possible to fly more than 200 metres (660 ft) in all the ski flying hills, and the current World Record is 239 metres (780 ft), set by Norwegian Bjørn Einar Romøren at Planica in 2005. This record was surpassed by Janne Ahonen of Finland at the same competition, but his 240-metre (790 ft) jump was not recognised as Ahonen fell when he landed.

The Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS) Ski flying World Championships started in 1972 and have been held on a mainly biennial basis (althoug there have been several occasions where events were held annually). The 2010 FIS World Championships in skiflying will be organised in Planica, and in 2012 the FIS World Championships will take place in Vikersund, Norway.

National records

The largest jump in the world, in Planica, Slovenia

Rank	Nation	Record holder	Length
1.	Norway	Bjørn Einar Romøren	239 metres (780 ft)
2.	Finland	Matti Hautamäki	235.5 metres (773 ft)
3.	Austria	Gregor Schlierenzauer	233.5 metres (766 ft)
4.	Slovenia	Robert Kranjec	229 metres (750 ft)
5.	Russia	Dimitri Vassiliev	228 metres (750 ft)
6.	Germany	Michael Neumayer	227.5 metres (746 ft)
7.	Poland	Adam Małysz	225 metres (740 ft)
8.	Japan	Daiki Ito	222.5 metres (730 ft)
9.	Switzerland	Andreas Küttel	222 metres (730 ft)
10.	United States	Alan Alborn	221.5 metres (727 ft)
11.	Czech Republic	Antonin Hajek	219 metres (720 ft)
12.	France	David Lazzaroni	212 metres (700 ft)
13.	Italy	Roberto Cecon	207.5 metres (681 ft)
14.	Sweden	Isak Grimholm	207.5 metres (681 ft)
15.	Belarus	Petr Chaadaev	197.5 metres (648 ft)
16.	Kazakhstan	Radik Zhaparov	196.5 metres (645 ft)
17.	Slovakia	Martin Mesik	195.5 metres (641 ft)
18.	Estonia	Jens Salumäe	195 metres (640 ft)
19.	Canada	Stefan Read	191.5 metres (628 ft)
20.	South Korea	Heung Chul Choi	191 metres (630 ft)
21.	Ukraine	Oleksander Lasarovich	178.5 metres (586 ft)
22.	Netherlands	Christoph Kreuzer	162 metres (530 ft)
23.	Hungary	Gabor Geller	139 metres (460 ft)
24.	Turkey	Baris Demirci	123 metres (400 ft)
25.	Kyrgyzstan	Dmitry Chvykov	122 metres (400 ft)
26.	China	Zhandong Tian	121.5 metres (399 ft)
27.	Romania	Florin Spulber	118 metres (390 ft)
28.	Bulgaria	Petar Fartunov	116.5 metres (382 ft)
29.	United Kingdom	Glynn Pedersen	113.5 metres (372 ft)
30.	Georgia	Kakhaber Tsakadze	105 metres (340 ft)
31.	Croatia	Josip Sporer	102 metres (330 ft)
32.	Denmark	Andreas Bjelke Nygaard	100.5 metres (330 ft)
33.	Iceland	Skarphedinn Gudmundsson	64 metres (210 ft)
34.	Australia	Hal Nerdal	53 metres (170 ft)
35.	Latvia	Kristaps Laganovski	52 metres (170 ft)
36.	Uganda	Dunstan Odeke	50 metres (160 ft)
37.	Ireland	Richard Brown	35 metres (110 ft)
38.	Wales	Mark Evans	34 metres (110 ft)

Water ski jumping

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See also: Water skiing

The ski jump is performed on two long skis similar to those a beginner uses, with a specialized tailfin that is somewhat shorter and much wider (so it will support the weight of the skier when he is on the jump ramp). Skiers towed behind a boat at fixed speed, maneuver to achieve the maximum speed when hitting a ramp floating in the water, launching themselves into the air with the goal of traveling as far as possible before touching the water. Professional ski jumpers can travel up to 70 metres (230 ft). The skier must successfully land and retain control of the ski rope to be awarded the distance.

An extreme version of this sport named Ski Flying was promoted by Scot Ellis and Jim Cara, in which boat speeds and ramp heights are boosted because physics have proved that the standard 75 feet (23 m) line and traditional 35 miles per hour (56 km/h) boat speed is outrun by the skier and the pro skier was ahead of the boat, being held back by the line.