Informative Essay On Ski Jumping

Ski jumping as an Olympic sport deserves more recognition. Ski jumping was created and thought of in Norway, the first ski jumper being ole rye, a Norwegian army lieutenant. He decided to try something out, so he set up a jump with the assistance of his peers (who were also in the army) and his first jump was 9.5 meters, leading to the birth of the sport in 1809. Ski jumping first caught my eye while visiting my friend in Switzerland. He was quite an avid Ski jumper and even competed in several national competitions for the under 18 clubs. Me, being a novice skier had no business in ski jumping, however my friend decided I should come watch one of his practices. More often then not they will just be inside exercising they’re legs, but today the jump was completely unoccupied due to bad conditions, mainly being too icy. Long story short he totaled his leg and wrist, breaking his leg in 3 places and snapping his wrist, it was not a pretty sight but strangely it drew me closer to the sport as I now knew how dangerous it could be.

The longest ski jump ever recorded occurred on February 16th 2015 by Anders Fannemel, a ridiculous 251.5 meters. Let’s put that into perspective, a football field is 100 yards or 91 meters so he jumped over 2.5 footballs fields with nothing but a pair of skis and lots of practice. That is insane. A quote from Anders after
At the dawn of ski jumping and for years after it there was a lot of speculation regarding whether or not women should be allowed to compete in ski jumping. “In 1991, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that all future Olympic sports must be opened to both genders, however, this excluded the original sports at the inaugural Olympic Winter Games in 1924, including ski jumping.” (Women’s Ski jumping USA) This has been the case for a long time, however the upcoming winter Olympics in Pyeong Chang, South Korea will be the first ever Olympics to host women’s ski