Ski Jumping

How it started

Ski jumping traces back to Sondre NorheimNorwegian skier (1825–1897). Credited as the father of modern skiing and ski jumping technique. /SON-dreh NOR-hyme/’s experiments off the hills of Telemark, Norway, in the mid-1800s. The sport entered the Winter Olympics at the very first Games, held in ChamonixFrench Alpine town. Hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1924. /sham-oh-NEE/ in 1924, with a single event open only to men.1

When women were let in

Norwegian women were jumping competitively by the 1860s, decades before the sport reached the Olympics at all. But when the Norwegian Ski Jumping Association weighed the question in the mid-1900s, its official position was that a female jumper would diminish the prestige of the country’s marquee jumping venue, HolmenkollenNorway’s most prestigious ski jumping venue, near Oslo, dating to 1892. /HOL-men-kol-en/.2

The International Olympic CommitteeThe global governing body that decides which sports and events are included in the Olympic Games. (IOC) held a similar line into the 2000s. A 2006 proposal to add women’s ski jumping to the 2010 Vancouver Games was formally rejected, with the IOC citing insufficient international development of the sport.3 Women’s ski jumping finally debuted at the 2014 Sochi Games, ninety years after the men’s event.