25.01.2018
The city of Pyeongchang in the Republic of Korea will soon welcome Turkey’s first ever ski jumper to compete at an Olympic Winter Games. Therefore, here is a list of interesting facts on the sport of ski jumping.
- It is known that the first person to ski jump is Norwegian-Danish Olaf Rye, who lived between 1791-1849. Rye jumped 9.5m in 1808.
- Sondre Norheim is widely considered to be the father of modern ski jumping. In 1866 he won what has been described as the world’s first ski jumping competition, held in Høydalsmo, Norway.
- After World War I, Jacob Tullin Thams and Sigmund Ruud developed a new jumping style known as the Kongsberger Technique. Using this technique, Sepp Bradl of Austria became the first person to jump more than 100 metres when he jumped 101 metres in 1936.
- Then in 1985, Swedish jumper Jan Boklöv developed the “V” technique. In this jumping style, athletes open the points of their skis in the form of “V” in order to achieve straight balance.
- Ski jumping has been part of the Olympic Winter Games since the first edition in Chamonix, Mont-Blanc in 1924.
- In ski jumping, athletes ski down from different sized ramps, jumping and flying across the air, and attempting smooth landings at the farthest point possible.
- In ski jumping two standards are important; distance and style. The distance point and style point determine the jumper’s total score.
- Although ski jumping is known as a winter sport, it has a summer version in which jumpers slide down the take-off ramp to the launch pad right on the ceramic nubs.
- There are three disciplines of ski jumping at the Olympic Winter Games: Normal Hill Individual, Large Hill Individual and the Team.
- Ski jumping is one of the leading winter sports due to it being an eye-pleasing and breath-taking sport to watch.
Fatih Arda İpçioğlu
Fatih Arda Ipcioglu is set to make his Olympic debut at PyeongChang 2018 as Turkey’s first ever ski jumper at an Olympic Winter Games. The 21-year-old has taken the podiums in Balkan Cups and has competed in Continental Cups and World Cups.