The sport of
ski jumping
Ski jumping is a winter sport in which competitors aim to achieve the farthest jump after sliding down on their skis from a specially designed curved ramp. Along with jump length, competitor's aerial style and other factors also affect the final ...
has seen the use of numerous different techniques, or "styles", over the course of its more than two-hundred-year history. Depending on how the
ski
A ski is a narrow strip of semi-rigid material worn underfoot to glide over snow. Substantially longer than wide and characteristically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partial ...
s are positioned by an athlete, distances have increased by as much as within the past century.
Kongsberger
![Bundesarchiv Bild 183-61623-0009, Harald Pfeffer](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-61623-0009%2C_Harald_Pfeffer.jpg)
The Kongsberger technique (Norwegian: ''Kongsbergknekk'') was created by
Jacob Tullin Thams
Jacob Tullin "Tulla" Thams (7 April 1898 – 27 July 1954) was a Norwegian Olympian, who competed in ski jumping and sailing.
Career
He won the first Olympic ski jumping gold medal in 1924, and became the third person (after Gillis Grafström wh ...
and
Sigmund Ruud
Sigmund Ruud (30 December 1907 – 7 April 1994) was a Norwegian ski jumper. Together with his brothers Birger and Asbjørn, he dominated ski jumping in the 1920s and 1930s.
Career
At the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Sigmund earned a si ...
in
Kongsberg
Kongsberg () is a historical mining town and municipality in Buskerud, Viken county, Norway. The city is located on the river Numedalslågen at the entrance to the valley of Numedal. Kongsberg has been a centre of silver mining, arms production ...
, Norway. Developed after
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the technique was characterised by the athlete's upper body being bent at the hip, with arms extended at the front in the manner of a "superhero", and skis held parallel to each other. Sometimes the arms would be waved or 'flapped' around vigorously in a bird-like manner. This technique extended jumping lengths from to over , and was used in ski jumping until being superseded by the Windisch and Däscher techniques in the 1950s.
[MacArthur, Paul J. (March–April 2011)]
''Skiing Heritage Journal''
pp. 20–25, at Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
. International Skiing History Association. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
Windisch
![Miro Oman 1958](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Miro_Oman_1958.jpg)
The Windisch technique, created by
Erich Windisch Erich Alfred Windisch (born January 4, 1918, in Schöneck, Germany, died February 14, 2007, in Vail, Colorado) was a German Olympic ski jumper who developed in 1949 the jumping technique in which the jumper’s arms are slightly arched and pointing ...
in 1949, was a modification of the Kongsberger technique. The athlete's arms are instead placed backwards toward the hips for a closer, more
aerodynamic
Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dyn ...
lean.
[
]
Parallel/classic/Däscher
The parallel style, classic style, or Däscher technique was created by Andreas Däscher
Andreas Däscher (born 9 June 1927) is a Swiss former ski jumper who is best known for developing the parallel style, or Däscher technique, in the 1950s. This technique became widely used throughout ski jumping until the early 1990s.
This techn ...
in the 1950s, as a modification of the Kongsberger and Windisch techniques.[ No longer was the upper body bent as much at the hip, enabling a flatter, more aerodynamic position in the air. This style became the standard for ski jumping as a whole until the development of the V-style. In the 1980s, ]Matti Nykänen
Matti Ensio Nykänen (; 17 July 1963 – 4 February 2019) was a Finnish ski jumper who competed from 1981 to 1991. Widely considered to be the greatest male ski jumper of all time, created a variation of the parallel style in which the skis were pointed diagonally off to the side in order to increase surface area
The surface area of a solid object is a measure of the total area that the surface of the object occupies. The mathematical definition of surface area in the presence of curved surfaces is considerably more involved than the definition of arc ...
, essentially forming a crude "half 'V'".[ Higdon, Hal (March–April 1991)]
''Snow Country''
pp. 48–51, at Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
V-style
The V-style, sometimes called the Graf–Boklöv technique, remains the sport's most recent significant technique change, with the ski tips spread outwards in a highly aerodynamic "V" shape. It became the predominant jumping technique following the Däscher/parallel style, which was last used in the early 1990s.
The originator of the V-style was Mirosław Graf
Mirosław Graf (born 5 June 1959) is a Polish former ski jumper, inventor of V-style.
Career
He began his career in 1969 in Szklarska Poręba, from 1974 he performed in Karpacz and latterly in Zakopane from 1980-82.
In 1969 he suffered an injur ...
, a Polish ski jumper from Szklarska Poręba
Szklarska Poręba (german: Schreiberhau) is a town in Jelenia Góra County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. The town has a population of around 6,500. It is a popular ski resort.
An important regional and national centre fo ...
. Graf discovered the technique as a child in 1969, but it was not taken seriously by his contemporaries. He was nonetheless aware that the V-style was highly effective, as his jumps became considerably longer.
In the early 1980s, Steve Collins
Stephen Collins (born 21 July 1964) is an Irish former professional boxer who competed from 1986 to 1997. Known as the Celtic Warrior, Collins is the most successful male Irish boxer in recent professional boxing history, having held the WBO m ...
used a modified variation of the V-style, or "delta style", with the ski tips held together in front instead of at the rear.["USASJ Story Project- Dec 31 Bakke"]
USA Ski Jumping Story Project. 31 December 2012. Archived fro
on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2017. Collins was the youngest winner of a World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...
event at the age of fifteen, but his technique never caught on. During this era, any technique aside from the parallel style was considered inappropriate by FIS
FIS or fis may refer to:
Science and technology
* '' Fis'', an ''E. Coli'' gene
* Fis phenomenon, a phenomenon in linguistics
* F♯ (musical note)
* Flight information service, an air traffic control service
* Frame Information Structure, a Se ...
judges. Although it enabled much longer jumps – up to ten per cent more than the parallel style – judges made it an issue to award poor marks to those who used it.
The V-style only became recognised as valid by judges in the early 1990s, following wins and high rankings by Jan Boklöv
Jan Mauritz Boklöv (born 14 April 1966) is a Swedish former ski jumper who won the 1988–89 World Cup season. He also dominated the Swedish national championships during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He is best known for popularising the now ...
, Jiří Malec
Jiři Malec (; born 24 November 1962, in Vlastiboř) is a Czech former ski jumper who competed for Czechoslovakia from 1985 to 1990. Along with Jan Boklöv and Stefan Zünd, he was an early pioneer of the V-style. At the 1988 Winter Olympics in ...
and Stefan Zünd
Stefan may refer to:
* Stefan (given name)
* Stefan (surname)
* Ștefan, a Romanian given name and a surname
* Štefan, a Slavic given name and surname
* Stefan (footballer) (born 1988), Brazilian footballer
* Stefan Heym, pseudonym of German writ ...
, who insisted on using the technique despite receiving low style points. By the mid-1990s it had become the predominant style of jumping used by all athletes, and was therefore no longer penalised as it had proven to be both safer and more efficient than the parallel style.
H-style
In the H-style, the skis are spread very wide apart and held parallel in an "H" shape, with minimal or no V-angle. A lesser-used technique as of 2018, it is prominently used by Domen Prevc
Domen Prevc (born 4 June 1999) is a Slovenian ski jumper.
Career 2015: World Cup debut
Prevc competed in the 2015 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival. He made an individual World Cup debut on 22 November 2015 in Klingenthal with eighth place. ...
, Léa Lemare, and Nika Križnar
Nika Križnar (born 9 March 2000) is a Slovenian ski jumper.
Career
In the 2020–21 World Cup season, she won the overall title after finishing nine points above Sara Takanashi. At the 2022 Winter Olympics
The 2022 Winter Olympics (2022 ...
."Women's Ski Jumping HS100 - FIS Nordic World Ski Championships"
Getty Images
Getty Images Holdings, Inc. is an American visual media company and is a supplier of stock images, editorial photography, video and music for business and consumers, with a library of over 477 million assets. It targets three markets— creative ...
. 24 February 2017. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
See also
* Ski flying#Technique changes: parallel to V-style
References
{{Reflist
External links
Olympic Ski Jumping History
Techniques
Technique or techniques may refer to:
Music
* The Techniques, a Jamaican rocksteady vocal group of the 1960s
*Technique (band), a British female synth pop band in the 1990s
* ''Technique'' (album), by New Order, 1989
* ''Techniques'' (album), by M ...
Ski flying