Let’s start with some basic gender equality facts in skiing. The first women’s downhill at the Olympics was in1948. Women were awarded Olympic medals in combined (one downhill run and two of slalom) beginning eight years earlier in 1936. FIS has awarded a women’s World Championship in downhill since 1931. The FIS database marks 1967 as the first year for an official FIS World Cup downhill race for both men or women. It’s a different...
When talking about women’s ski jumping in 2012, it’s impossible not to frame the discussion within the context of the sport’s long fight to be recognized as an event worthy of inclusion at the Olympics. Lindsay Van and Co.’s failed 2009 legal battle against the Vancouver Games captured the attention of the mainstream media as a strikingly medieval story for the twenty-first century. It was announced in the spring of 2011 that women’s ski jumping...
First or second in all but one World Cup competition this year, Sarah Hendrickson of Park City, Utah, capped off her historic season by clinching the overall women’s ski jumping title on Saturday in Zao, Japan. In the first season of the women’s World Cup, 17-year-old Hendrickson was the champion. She won Saturday’s first competition with two jumps of 99.5 meters to beat Japan’s Sara Takanashi, who jumped 98.5 and 99.5 meters. Hendrickson went on to...
Erzurum, Turkey (Feb. 23) — Sarah Hendrickson added another title Thursday to her long list of ski jumping accomplishments — silver medalist in the 2012 Nordic Junior World Ski Championships. In 2010 she won the bronze (the only American, male or female, to ever medal in a Junior World Championship). She began this season by winning the inaugural women’s World Cup opener in Lillehammer, Norway, and she’s the current overall leader on the World Cup circuit....
Ljubno, Slovenia — Sarah Hendrickson’s double fist-pump in the outrun is a modest show of celebration for the U.S. teen who’s been adamantly punching through the ceiling of women’s ski jumping this season. With two more World Cup wins this weekend in Ljubno, Slovenia, she’s sitting soundly in 1st place in the overall standings. Sarah has won six out of nine World Cup events and has notched at least two hill records, including Sunday’s second-round jump of 95...
She did it again, the American teenager Sarah Hendrickson has showed who is the female ski jumper of the hour and grabbed her third World Cup victory out of four competitions so far, today in Val di Fiemme (Italy). ‘I’m so happy to get on the first step of the podium once again’, Hendrickson said, ‘I felt great on both jumps and tomorrow I’ll try to race as well as I did today’. Under fair...
Members of the Visa Women’s Ski Jumping Team will make history Saturday by competing in the first-ever International Ski Federation (FIS) World Cup competition held for women’s ski jumping. Jessica Jerome, Sarah Hendrickson, Alissa Johnson and Abby Hughes (all of Park City, UT) will represent the U.S. in Lillehammer, Norway. Lindsey Van, 2009 World Champion, is recovering from ankle surgery in October and will not compete this weekend. Organizers are expecting nearly 50 jumpers from...
Three Women’s Ski Jumping USA leaders have been inducted into the American Ski Jumping Hall of Fame. The Friends of American Ski Jumping named Deedee Corradini, Victor Method and Peter Jerome to the Hall of Fame class of 2011 as part of its fifth annual event on Oct. 30 in Red Wing, Minn. Corradini, Method and Jerome were recognized for their influence in helping to grow the sport of ski jumping among women and girls...
The Women’s Sports Foundation is honoring the Visa Women’s Ski Jumping Team tonight with the 2011 Wilma Rudolph Courage Award as part of the 32nd Annual Salute to Women in Sports Awards Gala in New York City. Team members and their supporting foundation, Women’s Ski Jumping USA (WSJ-USA), are being recognized for their perseverance and courage in fighting to gain Olympic status for their sport. In April 2011, the International Olympic Committee added a women’s...
LONDON, April 6, 2011 — For the first time in Olympic Winter Games history, women will participate in ski jumping, beginning in Sochi, Russia in 2014. The International Olympic Committee made the announcement today during the IOC Executive Board’s press conference in London, site of the 2012 Summer Games. “We are elated and relieved,” said Deedee Corradini, Women’s Ski Jumping USA president. “Sochi, Russia can proudly proclaim that it will be hosting the first gender-equal...
Female ski jumpers have waited 86 years for their sport to be included at the Olympic Games, and now they will have to wait six more months. The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC’s) executive board announced Monday that a decision about whether to add women’s ski jumping to the program for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi would not be made until next spring—quashing the hopes of athletes and supporters who had hoped for a definitive ruling....
Lindsey Van of the U.S. Women’s Ski Jumping Team returned to the Continental Cup the weekend of Sept. 11-12 in Lillehammer, Norway, resuming high-level international competition after taking last season off to rest and recharge after a tumultuous yet exciting couple of years. Van made history in 2009, becoming the first-ever World Champion in women’s ski jumping. She was also a leader in the fight to include women’s ski jumping in the 2010 Olympic Winter...
Jessica Jerome of the U.S. Women’s Ski Jumping Team found her way back onto the podium, while teammate Lindsey Van made a successful return to Continental Cup competition over the weekend in a pair of events in Lillehammer, Norway. The competitions were held Saturday and Sunday on the HS 104 hill in Lillehammer. Jerome, having finished second on back-to-back days on this hill in 2008, found it to her liking once again Saturday, finishing in...
OBERWIESENTHAL, Germany (Aug. 20) – The women’s ski jumping crew were flying through the sky on Friday, competing in the Oberwiesenthal Continental Cup. USA’s Sarah Hendrickson (Park City, UT) stomped on the podium in third. Austria’s Jacqueline Seifriedsberger won the event. The women competed on the normal hill Friday with Seifriedsberger landing two consistent jumps of 96.5 meters for a total of 232.5 meters. Second place Coline Mattel of France scored the longest jump of...
August 16, 2010 – Sarah Hendrickson earned the second Continental Cup victory of her career, and Abby Hughes recorded a pair of top-five finishes as the Visa U.S. Women’s Ski Jumping Team began the 2010-11 season over the weekend with summer competitions in Bischofsgrun, Germany. Germany’s Jenna Mohr won Saturday’s opener by a point over Hughes; the two recorded identical jumps of 67.0 meters and 66.5 meters on the HS 74 hill but Mohr eked...
NOTODDEN, NORWAY — The Visa U.S. Women’s Ski Jumping Team rallied this weekend in the Ladies Continental Cup (COC) in Notodden, Norway to take three places in the top 10. On Dec. 19, Sarah Hendrickson placed 4th, Alissa Johnson 6th and Jessica Jerome 9th. Abby Hughes finished 14th. After six COC comps, 15-year-old Hendrickson is ranked 4th in the world just behind veterans Daniela Iraschko, AUT, Ulrike Graessler, GER, and Anette Sagen, NOR. Visa Women’s...
The following is an open letter to Dr. Jacques Rogge, President of the IOC, from the women ski jumpers in response to recent public remarks Dr. Rogge made about women’s ski jumping at a press conference. Below the letter is a transcript from the press conference. Dear Dr. Rogge: We were very dismayed by the way you elected to answer a question about women’s ski jumping asked of you last week at a press conference...
Vancouver – The women ski jumpers denied the right to participate in the 2010 Olympics will apply to the Supreme Court of Canada for permission to appeal the decisions of the lower courts, according to their lawyer Ross Clark, Q.C., a partner with Davis LLP in Vancouver. “We believe our argument has been misunderstood and that a matter of national importance is at stake,” Clark explained. “This case isn’t just about women ski jumpers. It...
Christa Case Bryant takes a close look at both sides of the Women’s Olympic Ski Jumping Issue. Her article does an excellent job of synthesizing the arguments, and clarifying the issues. The recent article on FasterSkier announcing yesterday’s court appeal generated a number of comments, and questions. This article should answer a number of those. Unless a Canadian court decides otherwise, the ski jumper with the longest flight on record at Vancouver’s Olympic facility will...
Vancouver – The women ski jumpers suing VANOC for inclusion in the 2010 Olympics are back in court today and Friday with arguments that will build on the trial judge’s findings of discrimination and VANOC carrying out a government activity, according to Ross Clark, Q.C., lawyer for the jumpers and a partner with Davis LLP in Vancouver. “We will ask the court to consider whether the IOC can force VANOC to discriminate when it’s carrying...