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«...Fourth on the start was Gering. He was flying and flying, very high and landed in a perfect position. We all knew something extraordinary happened. People responsible for distance measuring didn't have numbers, they figured out little later that he landed at 118 metres. After WR, when extatic crowd finally calmed down, competition continued with Paul Schneidenbach who had landed at 101 metres, after him Hans Lahr landed at 111 metres, then after that Paul Krauß at 112 metres and the very last was Franz Maier who crashed at 109 metres.»
—Only two WRs set in Planica 1941
("Jutro: Serija senzacij", p.1, column 4)[1]
Ski jumping is a winter sport in which athletes compete on distance and style in a jump from a ski jumping hill. The sport has traditionally focused on a combination of style and distance, and it was therefore early seen as unimportant in many milieus to have the longest jump.[2] The International Ski Federation (Fédération Internationale de Ski; FIS) has opposed the increase in hill sizes, and do not recognize any world records.[3]
Since 1936, when the first jump beyond 100 metres (330 ft) was made, all world records in the sport have been made in the discipline of ski flying, an offshoot of ski jumping using larger hills where distance is explicitly emphasised. As of March 2017, the longest jump ever recorded in any official competition is 253.5 metres (832 ft), set by Stefan Kraft at Vikersundbakken in Vikersund, Norway. As of March 2024, the women's world record stands at 230.5 m (756 ft), set by Silje Opseth also in Vikersund.
On 23–24 April 2024, Ryōyū Kobayashi made four successful attempts to unofficially break the world record on a temporary ski flying hill at Hlíðarfjall in Akureyri, Iceland. The purpose-built hill was constructed by Red Bull for promotional purposes. On the first day, Kobayashi jumped 256 m (840 ft). The following day he improved it to 259 m (850 ft), 282 m (925 ft), and finally 291 m (955 ft).[4]
History
Ski jumping originated in Norway, and has been practiced since time immemorial, using handmade temporary hills.[5] The first record is credited to Olaf Rye, a Norwegian-Danish soldier, who set up a show spectated by his fellow soldiers in 1808, on an improvised hill of handmade piled snow, reaching 9.4 metres (15 alen) in Eidsberg, Norway. This artificial small hill was built at Lekum gård (farm), a few hundred metres away from Eidsberg church.[6]
Sondre Norheim, credited as the 'father' of modern skiing,[7] made the second official record at 19.5 metres (64 ft) in 1868. Tim Ashburn says in his book The History of Ski Jumping that Norheim's longest jump on the circular track in Haugli ground in 1868 should have been measured at 9.4 metres alen[8] but that newspapers in Christiania reported that the length "was a little exaggerated", so the official record is everywhere written as 19.5 m.
The sport quickly spread to Finland, the United States and Canada, where some of the subsequent records were set.[9] Early jumping competitions were only scored by style, and it was seen as disruptive to attempt to jump further.[2] Not until 1901 was a scoring system for distance introduced.[10] With the construction of Bloudkova Velikanka in Planica, Yugoslavia, in 1934,[11] the separate discipline of ski flying was introduced, which is essentially an 'extreme' version of ski jumping.
With one exception, all of the world records for distance have been set on five of the world's six ski flying hills, of which five remain in use.[12] In 1936, Josef "Sepp" Bradl was the first to surpass 100 metres (330 ft), landing a jump of 101.5 metres (333 ft).[13] The FIS was long opposed to ski flying as a whole, and it has never been included in the Olympic or Nordic World Ski Championships. However, since 1972, the FIS Ski Flying World Championships has been a mainstay event, and ski flying event are also part of the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup calendar. The first to officially reach 200 metres (660 ft) was Toni Nieminen in 1994, by landing a jump of 203 metres (666 ft); at the time, ski jumpers did not receive distance points for the part of the jumps exceeding 191 metres.[14]
The distance of a ski jump is measured from the end of the 'table' (the very tip of the 'inrun' ramp) to halfway between the athletes' feet when they touch ground. To qualify, the jump must be made in a sanctioned competition, or official trial or qualification runs for these, with a system to control the actual length. To win a competition, an athlete needs both distance and style, the latter of which is achieved by attaining a proper Telemark landing; therefore jumpers are not motivated to jump as far as possible, only as far necessary to attain a good landing. Jumps are invalid if the jumper falls, defined as touching the ground with his hands or body before reaching the fall line. However, if an athlete touches the snow with any part of their body after landing, and receives style points greater than 14 from at least three judges, the jump is valid and counts as an official world record.[15]
When ski flying began in the 1930s, jumps were recorded in a traditional Scandinavian measure of length, the Norwegian alen (1 alen (Norway) = 0.6275 m (2.059 ft)). Some older United States and Canadian records were recorded in feet. Now, jump length is measured by the meter. Today, camera technology capably makes the measurements. Before, spectators were stationed downhill, meter by meter, and the raised hand of the nearest observer marked the jumper's landing.[16]
Men
| First ever recorded jump (22 November 1808) |
First official jump over 100 meters in history (15 March 1936) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
  Olaf Rye
|
Lekum gård |  Sepp Bradl
|
Bloudkova velikanka |
|
|
|
|
| 9.4 metres (31 feet) | Eidsberg Church (NOR) | 101.5 metres (333 feet) | Planica (JUG) |
| First ever (but invalid) jump over 100 metres in history (17 March 1935) |
First ever (but invalid) jump over 200 metres in history (17 March 1994) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Olav Ulland (2nd)
|
Trampolino del Littorio | Andreas Goldberger
|
Letalnica bratov Gorišek |
|
|
|
|
| 103.5 metres (340 feet) | Ponte di Legno (ITA) | 202 metres (663 feet) | Planica (SLO) |
Official world records
Progress of all valid world records by fully standing on both feet, although International Ski Federation doesn't recognize them.
Also distances set by test and trial jumpers during competition rounds are deemed official.
