Ski Jumping:
The first known ski jumper was Norwegian Olaf Rye, who jumped 9.5 metres in 1809 before an audience of other soldiers. By 1862, ski jumpers like Sondre Norheim were tackling much larger jumps, and competing in official ski jumping contests.
Ski jumping saw radical new development in 1985 with the innovative V-style, where a ski jumper holds his skis in a V-shaped position (instead of parallel) while in the air. Swedish ski jumper Jan Boklöv was the first athlete to employ this technique, after suffering an in-air seizure, using the technique to save himself from a crash landing. Other competitors quickly realized that V-style produced additional lift - was later verified to create 28 per cent more lift - and universally adopted the style.
Ski jumping has been part of the Olympic Winter Games since the first Games in Chamonix, in 1924. The large hill competition was added for the 1964 Winter Games in Innsbruck.
In ski jumping, an athlete skis down a long ramp, referred to as the inrun and launches into the air at speeds of up to 95 km/h. Technique is integral to ski jumping as athletes must perform a very precise and well-timed takeoff. Once in the air, athletes assume the V-style airfoil and adjusts his position to maximize lift and minimize drag. Competitors are evaluated on distance and style. While there is a very close relationship between distance and style, and the skier with the longest jump will often have the highest style points, an exception to this can be found in the landing portion. Long jumps can make landing in a controlled telemark position more difficult. The quality of landing can therefore be a determining factor in deciding on finishing place if the distances are similar.
Two jumps are used in Olympic competition: normal hill and large hill, with the normal hill being the smaller of the two. The jump’s actual height is of little importance; it’s the length of jump that the hill is designed to accommodate that’s key. Athletes can travel 105 metres on a normal hill and 140 metres on a large hill. The only American to win an Olympic medal in ski jumping is Anders Haugen, who placed 4th in 1932, but due to the discovery of a calculation error more than 50 years after the competition, he was awarded a bronze medal.
The distance ski jumpers travel in competition is closely regulated by a jury. At the start of the competitive round, the jury selects a start gate that allows the best athletes to fly close to the maximum safe distance. All athletes start from the same gate and, as a result, less proficient jumpers fly a shorter distance. Ski jumps are designed with many start benches allowing the jury to select the appropriate start gate based on conditions as wind, temperature, humidity, snow type and other facts can impact the distance a jumper flies.
Nordic Combined
Nordic combined combines cross-country skiing, which demands extreme physical fitness and endurance capacity, and ski jumping, which requires physical strength and technical control, and nordic combined athletes are considered some of the most well-rounded athletes of the Winter Olympic Games.
Nordic combined was included the first Olympic Winter Games in Chamonix, in 1924. The team event was introduced at the Calgary 1988 Winter Games, while the sprint event joined the Olympic Winter Games at Salt Lake City in 2002.
In 2003, Johnny Spillane became the first American to win the title of World Champion in a nordic discipline, by winning the Sprint competition at the 2003 World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy.
Olympic Nordic combined events consist of individual, sprint and team events. The jumping portion occurs first followed by a free technique cross-country race. The break between the jumping and the cross-country race can be as little as 35 minutes or as long as a few hours. The World Championships also include a mass-start competition, in which all of the competitors race cross country first - starting all together - and then jump second with the start order fixed according to the results of the cross country race.
