Important facts about ski jumping that a participant needs to know

Ski jumping involves skiing down the slopes of a hill. A competitive event like this one compels all contestants to move down a steep slope and get past curves while taking off or while they’re at a certain height on the other end. While leaping downwards from one end, the skiers are required to cover much of the distance horizontally while they’re in the air.

The spectators of the Winter Olympics held at Chamonix in 1924 had witnessed Ski jumping to be included for the very first time. The Olympics in 1964 saw the inclusion of a much larger hill, which resulted in splitting of this event into 2 segments – small hill jumping and large hill jumping. The hills are prepared for this event and graded accordingly. The classification of hills is purely based on the distance between their starting point and the end point, which gets traversed safely by all skiers.

The Olympics and other senior ski jumping events are held at heights worth 90 and 120 meters in small and large hills respectively. The winter Olympics provides you with a great opportunity to watch both the group jumping and individual jumping events. In 1980, a World Cup Ski Jumping tour was arrange, which was considered to be a major milestone achieved since the first World championships were arranged in 1925 by the Federation Internationale de Ski. The FIS championships didn’t witness any participation from female jumpers till 2009. However, the Winter Olympics in Sochi had included a small-hill ski jumping event for women in 2011.

Eddie Edwards may not seem to be a familiar name for the average American household. This British ski jumper had made it to the headlines when he took part in the Calgary Winter Olympics. Ever since his participation in 1988, several other ski jumpers have claimed their niche in similar events.

A skier needs to move at a great speed worth 100 km per hour till he arrives at the takeoff. Once there, he needs to move upward and outward. The initial point of a jump may even be lowered by the authorities after taking the risks (of moving downwards) into consideration. It will help them reduce the impact of the potential speed of jumping. Eddie Edwards speaker at some notable sporting channels and events had mentioned the risks involved in these types of championships.

In order to score high on a jumping opportunity, the participants often need to depend on their body position while they’re in the air. While skiing, the participants have to take the shock of their contact with the ground upon their hips and knees.  The jumper takes a turn for restricting his forward motion once the slopes get leveled. Several precautionary measures are taken for keeping a participant from jumping over. Apart from lowering of height, the authorities may even set limits on the thickness of ski-suits to be worn by the participants and restrict the length of their skies. Trapped air facilitates longer jumps when you’re wearing thick suits. The authorities have even laid down rules for positioning the ski bindings.