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| Ski Jumping - History
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Home > > Sport > > Ski Jumping > > History
Ski Jumping History
"Flexible like a spring he took off grom the ramp and glided into the air like a bird. He slightly bend his knees and at the same time he landed on the ground." This is not a description of a jump Andeas Goldberg, but a commentary made by a ski jumping comentator afte the jump of Torjus Hemmestveit (Norway). The jump was made in 1879 and the person who made it made a tremendous impresion on the comentator with 23 meter long jump which put him on the winning podium for the world's record breaking jump. Ski jumping originated in Norway. Holmenkollen competition has been started and held in Norway for over a hundred years. The first Olympic champion Jacob Thulin Thams (1924,Chamonix)was also Norwegian (two years after his Olympic medal he would become the first world champion). Formaly he was the second world champion because the first world championship was held in 1925 in the Czech Republic and its winner was Willy Dick. Unfortunatelly the competition hosted only local skiers without any representatives of other nations. The 30s were dominated by 3 Norwegian brothers Sigmund, Birger i Asbjoern Ruud who won 7 of 11 world champion competitions from 929-38 . Today the longest ski jump of 225 meters belongs to Austrian Andreas Goldberger. The symbolic 100 meter was crossed in 1936 by Austian Josef Bradl, right after the Anschluss.
This Norwegian sport has crossed many borders but never become as popular as soccer or basketball. It is enjoyed in about 20 countries. For years countries like Austria, Germany, Finland, and the Czech Republic have been trying to stop the Norwegian domination. The best jumpers come from Japan, Russia, America, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, France, and recently Poland and Sweden.
The histry of ski jumping is the history of jump distances. They are becoming longer thanks to much better equipment and different jumping techniques used by contestants. Before the World War I the jumpers upper body was almost wertical. It was changed later on and replaced by the technique where the upper body was bent at the hips, with a wide forward lean and with arms extended at the front.
World Cup ski jumping competitions are held on "small ramps", where distances of about up to 110 meters are reached, and "big ramps", where the maximum distance is about 130 meters. Using the modern V-technique, pioneered by Jan Boklöv of Sweden, world-level skiers are able to exceed the distance of the take-off hill by about 10 percent compared to the previous technique with parallel skis.
See also
Ski Jumping
Scoring
Equipment
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