WINTER SKI JUMPING


Ski jumping is done both in the winter and in the summer in the United States. I am a nordic ski jumper, this means that I jump off large ramps and lean over my skies. Nordic jumpers do not do flips or twists. Jumpers win a competition by going far and looking good for the judges (see form and rules).

The Basics of a Jump: (see diagram below)

A normal jump looks somthing like this. There is a large tower with a slide on one side. The slide can vary in steepness depending on the hill, but, on all hills it flattens out towards the end into what is called the table. At the end of the table is a dropoff, usually between two and twenty feet. The dropoff is the top of the landing hill. In the winter the entire hill is covered with packed snow and a track is cut (for the skies to set into) on the inrun. The landing hill is groomed smooth. Adaptations are made in the summer.

Hills range in size from k-5 meters to k-185 meters. The measurement is of how far down the landing hill a jumper can fly before the hill starts to flatten out. The hills used in modern olympics are the normal hill (k-90), and the large hill (k-120). Lake Placid, my home complex, has four hills: k-18, k-48, k-90, and k-120.

 

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