Olympic Ski Jumping Making News In Sochi

Ski Jumping is probably one of the most low-key events the Olympics offers, there are only 5 different events for ski jumping scheduled right now. It is just a sport in which the skiers go down a hill and pick up speed and then go off of a ramp and try to impress the judges with their leap distance and style.

The judges then give them scores, the highest score being a 20. Only 5 jumpers have ever gotten a 20 before and only one of those five has gotten the 20 at the Olympics. The other four got their scores at other various ski jumping competitions.

This sport is not unlike the summer Olympic sport, Diving, in the way that the public perceives it. This, ski jumping, is regarded as a somewhat bland or boring sport but it is one that I, and many others, enjoy greatly. It is a sport that relies primarily on grace and poise rather than tricks. In fact, no tricks are usually ever performed in this event but it is completely based on grace and eloquence.

This is a landmark year for the Women jumpers. This is the first year that the Olympics has permitted Women to participate in their own Ski Jumping events. Every country is looking to make history with their women’s team, the history would be that they would own the first ever Women’s Ski Jumping Gold Medal.

Right now, there are three US women competing and four US men. Anders Johnson, Nicholas Alexander, Nicholas Fairall, and Peter Frenette are all the men competing in the jumping. Jessica Jerome, Sarah Hendrickson and Lindsey Van are all the women who will be competing. Van is not to be confused with Lindsey Vonn, the American ski racer who recently had to withdrawal from Sochi because of health problems.

So far Kamill Stoch, the male jumper from Poland, has won the only gold medal for the Men’s side of ski jumping and on the other side Carina Vogt from Germany is the only woman to win a gold medal.

As of right now, the U.S. has yet to win any sort of medal for ski jumping. The women have lost their hopes of getting gold because there are no more events left for the females. The men, however, still have two more events in which they can medal and UHS is pulling for them to achieve their Olympic Dreams this year in Sochi!