Olympic Ski Jumping

If your goal is to fall a couple of hundred feet through the air and still make a smooth landing with no parachute, your best bet is to become a ski jumper. The event has been around long enough to immortalize the "agony of defeat" on ABC's "Wide World of Sports," but women have never competed in Olympic ski jumping prior to the 2014 Games in Sochi. 

Three women will climb the medal stand and claim Olympic hardware, but all 30 female competitors will make history, and these five jumpers are set to shine.

While men's ski jumping entails different events on a different length of hill, the women only jump on the normal hill, which is still a robust 95 meters (312 feet) from the desired landing point. We preview the top names in the event and provide all the info you need to get set for women's ski jumping.

When: Tuesday, Feb. 11, 12:30 p.m. ET

Where: RusSki Gorki Jumping Center, Krasnaya Polyana, Russia (approx. 40 miles from Sochi)

Watch: Live on NBCSN, 1:30 to 3 p.m. ET; tape-delayed on NBC in the 8 to 11:30 p.m. broadcast

Live Stream: NBCOlympics.com and NBC's Live Extra

Lindsey Van

At 29 years old, Lindsey Van is one of the burgeoning sport's elders. She took first at the inaugural women's ski jumping world championships in 2009, but it was a long road for women to travel just to compete in the event. 

As president of the International Ski Federation Gian-Franco Kasper told NPR's Brian Mann in 2005: "It's like jumping down from, let's say, about two meters on the ground about a thousand times a year, which seems not to be appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view."

Van stated, per Liz Clarke of The Washington Post: "I've had people ask me had my uterus fallen out yet. I heard that multiple times; it was comical. And embarrassing—not so much for me but for whoever said it."

It's an interesting claim with absolutely no medical backing whatsoever, but women have been ski jumping for generations outside of the Olympiad. In fact, Van was one of the few test jumpers on the ski jumping course at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, according to NBC's Greg Ferraro. 

While she will be competing against a slew of younger competitors in Sochi, it's fitting that one of the sport's pioneers will help kick off the new event.

Sara Takanashi 

Sara Takanashi is just 17 years old, but the gold-medal favorite strikes fear into the hearts of competitors with her victories in 10 different World Cup events this season.

The young woman from Japan stands at only 4'11", but ski jumping is not an event that requires great mass. In fact, that is part of why the previous absence of women from Olympic ski jumping is so puzzling: It is one of the few sports where size and strength do not matter. 

The goal is to display proper form to earn more points from the judges and to make a sail out of the body to catch as much wind and sail as far as possible. With her tiny frame, Takanashi floats the length of a football field as gently as a leaf caught in an updraft. 

Jessica Jerome

Jessica Jerome is a 27-year-old from Jacksonville, Fla., yet she has still managed to collect three national championships in ski jumping. And without her, it could have been that none of the female ski jumpers would be competing in Sochi. 

Jerome's parents took up the sport's cause after their daughter displayed an interest in it. As she relayed per The Washington Post: "My dad had the playback of 'the agony of defeat' in his brain and said, 'No!' My mom looked at the brochure and said, '$60 for five weeks! That’s cheaper than babysitting! You’re in!'"

One copy of "Nonprofit Kit for Dummies" later, and her parents had women's ski jumping well on its way to Olympic inclusion. 

Daniela Iraschko-Stolz

As noted by David Ljunggren of Reuters, Austrian Daniela Iraschko-Stolz is an advocate for gay rights, and she married her partner last year, which is where the "Stolz" comes from after the hyphen.

She also pressured Takanashi on the first day of practice by besting the Japanese favorite on two different jumps. Iraschko-Stolz will need to continue such long leaping to stay ahead of the field, but she is on the short list of likely gold medalists. 

Sarah Hendrickson

Sarah Hendrickson is just 19 years old and claimed the 2013 world championship. However, she has endured a significant recovery from a recent severe knee injury. 

According to Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times, Hendrickson will be competing in Sochi "less than six months after tearing her ACL, MCL and 80 percent of her meniscus."

Frankly, it is incredible that any athlete could return to competition from such an injury so quickly, let alone be able to fly over 300 feet through the air and make a controlled landing. Apparently the key is a whole lot of Romanian dead lifts, according to Hendrickson. 

With history set to be made on Tuesday, only one of the 30 competitors will claim the first gold in women's ski jumping, but the event is sure to broaden the sport's exposure and appeal in advance of the 2018 Olympics. 

On Tuesday, American Lindsey Van will compete in the Olympic Games for the first time. A legend in her sport, the 29-year-old has never represented her country in the ski jump. 

No one has. That makes Tuesday kind of a big deal.

For 90 years, since the first Winter Olympics in 1924, women have been forbidden from participating in the ski jump, one of the Games' eight original sports. Since 1998, a few staunch advocates have waged active battle from the slopes to the courts to see the world's premiere winter sporting event fully integrated. They've met fierce resistance at every turn.

The reason? It's crazy, antiquated and, frankly, a little unbelievable. 

It's a tale that begins in England, at the dawn of the Victorian era in 1836. Donald Walker, not content with his British Manly Exercises, puts pen to pad and writes Exercises for Ladies. Walker believed, because of her "feeble arms" and "peculiar function of multiplying the species," a woman could only bear "moderate exercise." Strenuous activity was out of the question.

It was a line of reasoning that pervaded popular thinking until just a few decades ago. Women were banned from the Boston Marathon until 1972, and the Summer Olympics didn't introduce a women's Marathon until 1984 in Los Angeles for similar reasons. 

Of course, not all women were willing to be relegated to the sidelines.

The very first organized ski jumping event in history featured at least one participant in a skirt. Ingrid Olavsdottir Vestby jumped 20 meters that day in 1862, and brave women have been jumping ever since.

It helped if there was no one willing to tell you "no." That, perhaps, allowed Countess Paula Lamberg to soar past Vestby's mark in the 1900s.

But even royalty couldn't completely escape the condemnation of her Austrian countrymen as journalists in Illustrierte Zeitung magazine politely attacked her decision to compete in such a rigorous sport (via Byron Rempel of SkiingHistory.org):

It is understandable that ski jumping is performed very rarely by women, and taking a close look, not really a recommendable sport. One prefers to see women with nicely mellifluous movements, which show elegance and grace, like in ice skating or lawn tennis…and it is not enjoyable or aesthetic to see how a representative of the fair sex falls when jumping from a hill, flips over and with mussed-up hair glides down towards the valley in a snow cloud.

The world has undoubtedly taken major strides in the decades since Lamberg created such a stir in Austria. Title IX revolutionized women's sports, and the Olympic Games became increasingly diverse. Two sports, however, refused to budge—ski jumping and the Nordic combined, likely because of its ski jumping component.

Shockingly, the rationale behind the baby steps toward full inclusion had the painful ring of the past. Gian Franco Kasper, the head of the International Ski Federation, told NPR in a 2005 interview that women's reproductive organs might not stand up to the rigors of ski jumping, that "it's like jumping down from, let's say, about two meters on the ground about a thousand times a year, which seems not to be appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view."

Van was outraged, and rightfully so.

"It just makes me nauseous. Like, I kind of want to vomit," she told NBC. "Like, really? Like, I'm sorry, but my baby-making organs are on the inside. Men have an organ on the outside. So if it's not safe for me jumping down, then my uterus is going to fall out, what about the organ on the outside of the body?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCP0UMTSToo

By 2009, Van had had enough. Stress, sleep loss and even ulcers were suddenly the gifts she was receiving from ski jumping; not the thrill of flight she had grown to love.   

Despite being the record holder, gender be damned, at Whistler, the jump built specifically for the 2010 Vancouver Games, Van and the other women who refused to give up on their dreams were refused an opportunity to compete.

A lawsuit followed.

And though the 14 women who stood up for justice didn't win in Canadian court, their decision to continue the fight likely led us to where we are today. 

In 2011, word came down from on high that the Sochi Olympics would make things right, at least in part. Women still aren't equal partners, participating in only one of the three events. But it's a start.

"I was kind of numb when I heard," Van told ESPN in 2011. "People expected me to be ecstatic, but I'd been after this for so long, it just didn't sink in at first."

Age and injuries, including nerve problems in her leg, have slowed Van as her career comes toward an inevitable end. She barely qualified for the Games, and her young teammate, 19-year-old Sarah Hendrickson, is expected to battle 17-year old Japanese sensation Sara Takanashi for the gold. 

For Van, the goal is simple. She wants to compete, to jump, to fly.

"I just want more people to see that women can ski jump," she told USA Today. "So check us out."

The medal round for Olympic ski jumping is on Sunday. On Saturday, the athletes who hadn't pre-qualified took to the RusSki Gorki Jumping Center to jockey for position ahead of Sunday's action.

The standout performer from Saturday was Austria's Michael Hayboeck. He set the pace with a score of 128.6. Can he continue his momentum once the big boys take the slope in Sochi?

Hayboeck promises to give the same effort on Sunday that he gave on Saturday. Per David Wharton of the Los Angeles Times, Hayboeck said:

"I'll do the same as I did now, nothing different, and hope for a medal. I'm self-confident now so it should be OK."

Here's how you can watch the action tomorrow, and the women's competition that begins on Feb. 11.

Schedule

Feb. 9: Men's individual normal hill final, 12:30 p.m. ET

Feb. 11: Women's individual normal hill, 12:30 p.m. ET

Look here for TV listings and here for live stream information.

Here are the jumpers that pre-qualified and are ready to show their skills on Sunday:

Ski Jumper	Country
Kamil Stoch	Poland
Peter Prevec	Slovenia
Noriaki Kasai	Japan
Gregor Schlierenzauer	Austria
Severin Freund	Germany
Simon Ammann	Switzerland
Anders Bardal	Norway
Andreas Wellinger	Germany
Thomas Diethart	Austria
Robert Kranjec	Slovenia

Any of those 10 men could feasibly take the top podium spot, as could Hayboeck if he can rise to the occasion.

However, the man to beat on Sunday will be Gregor Schlierenzauer. Wharton talks about Schlierenzauer's motivation to grab a top podium spot:

"For all his accomplishments, Gregor Schlierenzauer has never been an individual Olympic champion and he knows that winning the men's normal hill event Sunday won't be easy."

The 2010 bronze medalist has unfinished Olympic business, and he's determined to come through in Sochi.

The 24-year-old Austrian is the favorite for the individual gold medal. For the last three-plus years, Schlierenzauer has established himself as the man to beat in normal hill ski-jumping events.

To further build his case as the head of the ski jumping class in Sochi, Schlierenzauer took the 2013 World Cup at the very venue he'll ski and jump on Sunday.

With Schlierenzauer's talent and the presence of countrymen Thomas Diethart and Hayboeck, Austria seems headed for a second-straight team Olympic gold medal.

It should be an excellent weekend for Schlierenzauer and his teammates.

One of the most historic moments of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi will kick off on Day 1, as ski jumpers from around the globe take flight.

The classic spectacle is a high point of any Games on its own, but the 2014 edition is especially important now that women's ski jumping has been officially added to the mix.

While women will only compete in the normal hill competition (as men compete in that, along with the large hill and team competitions), it remains an important moment in the event's history.

Day 1 on Feb. 8 is merely a qualification round for those 51 athletes who have not already solidified their spots. Those who have already claimed spots give fans a pretty good idea of how the spectacle will end when all is said and done.

Viewing Info and Schedule

Where: RusSki Gorki Jumping Center in Sochi, Russia

TV: NBC

Live Stream: NBC (U.S.), BBC (U.K.)

Event	Date	Time (ET)	Time (U.K.)	Time (Sochi)
Men's Normal Hill Individual–Qualification	Feb. 8	11:30 a.m.	15:15	8:30
Men's Normal Hill Individual	Feb. 9	12:30 p.m.	16:30	9:30
Ladies' Normal Hill Individual	Feb. 11	12:30 p.m.	16:30	9:30
Men's Large Hill Individual–Qualification	Feb. 14	12:30 p.m.	16:30	9:30
Men's Large Hill Individual	Feb. 15	12:30 p.m.	16:30	9:30
Men's Team	Feb. 17	12:15 p.m.	16:15	9:15

Note: All info courtesy of NBC Olympics unless noted otherwise.

Preview and Prediction

Other historic changes to the sport, such as important rule changes, have flown under the radar with the stellar news of women being added to the event. There are new rules in place that will now adjust a participant's score based on a perceived wind advantage or disadvantage.

Wind will certainly play an issue, as the RusSki Gorki Jumping Center was specifically crafted to mesh well with the locale and winds that blow through it from the surrounding mountain ranges.

As expected, stars highlight the show. For the women's side, the most recognizable name is Lindsey Van, who has been dominant during her career in the sport thus far and has acted as an ambassador for women's ski jumping, as the U.S. ski team's Twitter captures:

Day 1 is of particular interest with 51 athletes set to partake in the qualifying round. Names such as Nick Fairall from the United States are sure to qualify. The 24-year-old Fairall is coming in hot after winning his first national title last year.

But as far as medal predictions go, one only has to look at the names who have already prequalified:

Name	Country
Robert Kranjec	Slovenia
Thomas Diethart	Austria
Andreas Wellinger	Germany
Anders Bardal	Norway
Simon Ammann	Switzerland
Severin Freund	Germany
Gregor Schlierenzauer	Austria
Noriaki Kasai	Japan
Peter Prevc	Slovenia
Kamil Stoch	Poland

Norway (29 medals), Austria (23) and Finland (22) have traditionally dominated this sport, so some of the above names should come as no surprise.

Thomas Diethart and Gregor Schlierenzauer lead the pack for Austria with the former as the man on a hot streak. Fellow teammate Thomas Morgenstern has yet to officially qualify, thanks to injuries after helping Austria to the team gold in Vancouver. He told reporters he does not feel fully healthy, per David Ljunggren of Reuters, via Yahoo! Sports Canada:

Of course I do not feel 100 percent. Spending two weeks in hospital is not the way I'd have chosen to prepare myself. I am very grateful to be here ... especially after these two crashes. On the one hand I am fresh and in good condition and am good shape and on the other hand I had to make some improvements (to) my technique.

With the debilitated state of the Austrian team, one has to think the advantage will go to Norway and Anders Bardal, who recently took home second place in the 2013 World Cup overall standings.

Last, but far from least, is Poland's Kamil Stoch, who recently became world champion on the large hill and is appearing in his third Olympic Games. Stoch has already been dominating the competition in practice runs at Sochi, per the Associated Press, via ESPN.

Expect Austria to hang around once more, but it will be Poland with the surprise gold medal when the team actives are said and done.

Team Medal Predictions: Gold: Poland; Silver: Austria; Bronze: Norway

For the first time in Olympic history, men and women will compete in ski jumping. That move makes history before anyone has even taken to the slopes.

If that's not enough to make you watch, perhaps the opportunity to watch someone begin their effort to challenge 2010 bronze medallist Gregor Schlierenzauer will be.

Since 2010, Schlierenzauer has established himself as the man to beat in normal hill ski-jumping events. He took the 2013 World Cup at RusSki Gorki Jumping Center; it's the same venue where the Sochi events will be held. 

Schlierenzauer is one of 10 men who have pre-qualified. The rest of the field will be jumping for their right to compete in the final.

The female equivalent of Schlierenzauer is Japan’s Sara Takanashi. At just 17 years old, Takanashi has already asserted herself as the top female ski jumper in the world this season.

She won the 2013 World Cup and has won six of the seven events she's competed.

The United States' Sarah Hendrickson is the best American hope for a medal—or a challenger to Takanashi. She beat her at the 2013 World Championships, but besting her at the Olympics will be a different story.

Questions about Hendrickson's health are as big of a concern as Takanashi. Bleacher Report's Chad Dundas writes:

[Hendrickson] is considered the primary threat to Takanashi’s hopes for gold, though the biggest question mark surrounding her will be her health.

She tore the anterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament and meniscus in her right knee during a crash in Germany last summer. She’s only been back on the hill since January.

Despite the odds, Hendrickson seems to be up for the challenge. She told Michael Lewis of The Salt Lake Tribune:

I’m kind of the underdog now. Where I was reigning world champion, now people have no idea what to expect.

My knee is still five months out of surgery, and I knew it would react a little bit to the stress of training again. But it’s actually done pretty well. I’m confident in what I’ve done with it, and I’m confident in what I can do here in Sochi.

Overcoming physical setbacks and a talented, young favorite will be a tall task.

Here's a look at the schedule for the men's and women's events.

2014 Winter Olympic Ski Jumping Schedule:

Feb. 8: Men's individual normal hill qualification, 11:30 a.m. ET

Feb. 9: Men's individual normal hill final, 12:30 p.m. ET

Feb. 11: Women's individual normal hill, 12:30 p.m. ET

Look here for TV listings and here for live stream information.

Predictions

Men's Gold Medal

Schlierenzauer has a significant advantage having had success at the RusSki Gorki Jumping Center. At 24 years old, he has an opportunity to dominate in Sochi and in the 2018 Games.

Look for him to take the gold medal on Sunday.

Women's Gold Medal

Takanashi is the pick here, but Hendrickson will really push her to excel. Even if Takanashi doesn't win gold, she could feasibly compete in two more Olympic games.

The future is bright for her, and her Olympic glory will begin on Tuesday with the first Olympic gold medal by a female ski jumper.

Ski jumpers at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, are sure to capture the attention of viewers around the globe with their flashy, high-flying antics in their pursuit of gold.

This is a must-watch event for any and all around the world. The sport itself is undergoing a historic change, as women will be allowed to compete in the event for the first time. Men will partake in the normal hill, large hill and team competitions, while women will participate in the normal hill competition.

As is the case with all events from Sochi, NBC will provide a live stream of all ski jumping events. Thanks to an interesting venue, history in the making and the overall excitement from a thrilling sport, potential spectators would be wise to work their schedules around the event.

Viewing Info and Schedule

Where: RusSki Gorki Jumping Center in Sochi, Russia

TV: NBC

Live Stream: NBC (U.S.), BBC (U.K.)

Event	Date	Time (ET)	Time (U.K.)	Time (Sochi)
Men's Normal Hill Individual–Qualification	Feb. 8	11:30 a.m.	15:15	8:30
Men's Normal Hill Individual	Feb. 9	12:30 p.m.	16:30	9:30
Ladies' Normal Hill Individual	Feb. 11	12:30 p.m.	16:30	9:30
Men's Large Hill Individual–Qualification	Feb. 14	12:30 p.m.	16:30	9:30
Men's Large Hill Individual	Feb. 15	12:30 p.m.	16:30	9:30
Men's Team	Feb. 17	12:15 p.m.	16:15	9:15

Note: All info courtesy of NBC Olympics unless noted otherwise.

The Venue and What to Expect

RusSki Gorki Jumping Center is of particular interest now that the Games have arrived. While students of the sport will surely know this, it is interesting that the Jumping Center was built specifically to mesh well with the surrounding environment, as Sochi2014.com details: "The facility’s location at the junction of two ridges was selected by international experts in order to make ski-jumping facilities harmonious with the surrounding landscape and to protect athletes from side winds."

In singles competition, each participant makes two jumps, must land with Telemark style and is graded on distance and style. Team competition consists of each team member jumping once in the qualifying round before a showdown of the final eight nations in a battle to emerge with the highest combined score.

Athletes to Watch

Sarah Hendrickson, United States

The traditional powers in ski jumping are Finland, Norway and Austria—countries that have historically blown away the competition in the event.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITocLRGQAek

Sarah Hendrickson has a chance to turn the tide in a big way.

While she does not have as recognizable a name as teammate Lindsey Van, Hendrickson is the favorite to bring home gold. At just 19 years old, the Salt Lake City native has reached the World Cup podium 22 times and won the world championship in 2013.

Outside of success, Hendrickson is the supreme example of a comeback story. She tore her ACL, MCL and meniscus on Aug. 21 in Germany but is healthy and ready to use her comeback as motivation, via Nick Zaccardi of NBC OympicTalk:

When I crashed back in August, I laid at the bottom of the hill and thought everything was over. My dreams of being an Olympian were over. I decided to put my head down and work as hard as I could every single day until this day so that I could make my dreams come true.

Hendrickson is the top female to watch, but Japan's Sara Takanashi figures to provide stiff competition after dominating the World Cup scene in Hendrickson's absence.

Simon Ammann, Switzerland

Simon Ammann is an Olympic legend. 

The 2014 Games are likely Ammann's curtain call, as he is 32 years old, so fans will want to tune in to see how his historic career will come to a close.

Ammann started his Olympic journey at the age of 16 and has the honor of being the only man in the sport to win four individual jumping golds, including two at the Winter Games in Vancouver with victories in the normal and large hill events.

After Ammann carries the Swiss flag at the opening ceremonies, he is a favorite to win yet again. The field is littered with talent, such as Austria's Gregor Schlierenzauer, but Ammann deserves the spotlight.

The U.S. ski jump team will prep for the Sochi Winter Olympics on Sunday, when the team trials begin at Utah Olympic Park, the former site of the 2002 Winter Games.  

It's a winner-take-all format, with the champion of each event earning an automatic nomination for the roster.  The rest of the squad will be selected based on existing candidates from World Cup and Continental Cup events.  Viewers can see the whole event live on NBC at 1:30 p.m. ET.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apxwsPYFPoE

Ski jumping is not a new event at the Winter Olympics. It was part of the inaugural Winter Games in 1924.  However, 90 years later, the women are finally jumping into the fray, with the first-ever women's ski jump event.

That is where the Americans could make a dent in the medals board, led by reigning world champion Sarah Hendrickson.  At 19 years old, the precocious Hendrickson won nine of 13 World Cup events in 2012.  Unfortunately, Hendrickson will not compete this weekend because she needed surgery to repair a torn ACL that she suffered in late August, though she appears close to a return:

Even without Hendrickson, the Americans figure to harbor at least one other legitimate threat to reach the podium.  Lindsey Van was the 2009 world champion, and she has tallied numerous top-10 finishes in 2013.  Van helped the U.S. win gold in the Nation's Cup in the 2012 season at Oslo, Norway.

On the men's side, the U.S. squad is not expected to medal, as the Americans have medaled only once in the history of the event.  Anders Haugen took bronze in 1924, so the squad has a long drought to break.  The brightest hope might be Chris Lamb, who won the FIS Cup in February of 2013, but any American medal here would be a shock.

So can Hendrickson, or any other American woman, medal in their inaugural event?  If that is to happen, they will have to overcome a 17-year-old Japanese sensation who has taken the ski jumping circuit by storm, according to Dennis Passa of the Associated Press:

While world champion Sarah Hendrickson continues rehabilitation from a knee injury and still hopes to compete at Sochi, a precocious Japanese flyer has emerged as the gold medal favorite when women's ski jumping makes its debut, finally, at the Winter Olympics in February.

Sara Takanashi has won all three World Cup ski jumping events this season and dominates the overall standings.

In the middle of next month, the 17-year-old Takanashi will have two "home" World Cup events for her to pad her lead -- at Sapporo and Zao, Japan. And perhaps to give her even more confidence for a podium performance at Sochi.

Hendrickson figures to be competing in World Cup events next month to tune up for the Winter Games, barring any setbacks.  Takanashi will likely enter Sochi as the favorite due to her immaculate pre-Olympics form, but look for Hendrickson to come close to gold this February.

Predictions

Men: No medals

Women: Hendrickson wins silver (normal hill, individual)