Olympic Ski Jumping Essay

Olympic ski jumping is a very competitive sport that amazes its audience. It is important to know about the technique of the sport, its background, major jumpers, and the scoring process. Although the sport looks simple, ski jumping takes lots of skill and practice. It starts off with a large curved ramp with heights of 70 and 90 meters (Kolur). Skiers place their skis in the tracks formed on the ramp to begin the jump. They then stand at the top of the ramp and do an approach, which is where the skier crouches into a small position and goes down the downhill part of the ramp (“Ski Jumping”). The skier launches off the end of the ramp and forms their skis into a “V” position. They lean forward as much as they can until their faces are around one foot away from the tops of their skis. After around five to seven seconds, the skier lands (Kolur). As ski jumping has been around for so long, the technique today has not always been the same. The history of olympic ski jumping dates back to 1924 at the winter Olympic games in Chamonix, France (“Stoch Heading to PyeongChang 2018 on an Upward Curve”). In the early years of Olympic ski jumping, ramps varied from 70 to 90 meters in size. In 1964, the standard normal hill was changed to 70 meters, and in 1968, the large hill was adjusted from 80 to 90 meters (Kolur). In traditional ski jumping

From Finland, Matti grew up being addicted to ski jumping. His first place win as an 11-year-old soon escalated to much more in 1998, when he became the first jumper to win three medals in the Winter Olympic Games. This took place in Calgary, Canada. His many Olympic accomplishments included a total of 12 Olympic medals, with seven being gold. He had 76 appearances on the World Cup podium, 46 World Cup victories, and four World Cup gold medals. To top it off, he was the first person to clear the barrier of a 190-meter jump, with a jump of 191 meters