Hi all! Long time lurker here.
Watching those skiing long jump events I have always wondered why they are able to land jumps.
Was hoping someone could breakdown how they are able to land quite softly after being airborne for such a long time.
Clearly the horizontal component of their flight coupled with the slope they are landing on greatly diminishes the impact of landing at what appears to be terminal velocity vertical speed.
Thanks for reading.
The land on a slope. There was once skier who did so well that (s)he landed past the slope and hideously wrecked. I remember the judges not deducting points for that.
ETA: Here you go.
Ski jumpers aren’t particularly high off the slopes until you get to the 120-meter hills (ski flying) but even then their flight path closely tracks the hill they land on. It’s the same reason people jumping motorcycles can land safely (well, some of them) ramp to ramp. Strong legs and skill are still needed, but it’s not a violent landing unless they mess up.
Yes - specifically, their trajectory intersects the slope at such a grazing angle that the distance between them and the surface closes very slowly. Of course, they’re moving quite fast across the surface, but that doesn’t matter, because they’re on skis.
When we were kids, we used to go to this nearby gravel pit, jump off the edge, drop 15 or 20 feet and land softly in the sloping scree below. Same basic principle… if we’d jumped too far, we would have gone splat.
Are the differences between slope of the launching ramp and the hill strictly controlled by the governing body that hands out records (and MP3s)? If not, do these things make a difference to the distance leapt or is it inconsequential?
I find that questionable. Ski jumping is judged on distance and style. Not nailing a telemark landing is a loss of style points. A non-telemark will get you 2.0 deducted on style, and a completely botched landing will get you 5.0 points deducted. I suppose it’s possible the jumper was so far beyond the K point that the judges couldn’t bring themselves to deducting for a botched landing, but that just seems really, really weird to me, and not something I’ve ever seen in following ski jumping. Of course, writing that will mean that it has happened.
The entire design of a ski jump hill is strictly controlled by the international federation which makes decisions about competitions. When building or redesigning ski flying hills they try to get a hill with record breaking jumps possible. When building a regular hill that’s not so interesting. A good enough skier, starting from high enough, with favourable wind, will be able to jump all the way to the part where you risk injury or death. Choosing a starting ledge that doesn’t have the lesser athletes landing at the top of the hill, most jumps being somewhat exciting, but doesn’t risk the lives of the big hitters is a constant juggle for international competitions.
I could perhaps be misremembering this event. Skip to the penultimate paragraph.
A couple of summers ago my wife and I went to Lake Placid (which has held a couple of winter Olympics). While there we visited the ski jump area, took an elevator to the top of the largest jump tower, and got to stand where the ski jumpers start their runs. (There’s a secure gate blocking access to the rest of the jump and preventing you from trying anything silly.)
From the top of the ski jump it looks like you launch off directly into space. The entire landing area is hidden from view by the ramp itself. You’ve got to be nuts to launch yourself off of that thing!
Huh, funny, just this morning I was helping some physics students with a problem based exactly on this.
Sounds to me like he stuck to the landing long enough. Can’t find a video of it, unfortunately. A full-on crash should deduct deduct style points.
That sounds somewhat like the situation described in the Werner Herzog documentary The Great Ecstasy of the Sculptor Steiner. It’s about a Swiss ski-jumper (actually, the one mentioned at the end of your other link) in the mid-70’s who flies so much further than anyone else that he is in serious danger of overflying the landing slope. At the world championship that Herzog films, Steiner has to use only half the slope above the ramp, but is still flying significantly further than anyone else.
The first 10 minutes of the documentary are on YouTube, which sort of gives the general premise. Also of interest perhaps to the OP it shows one of Steiner’s crashes (starting at about 2:10) where he lands with only a few meters of slope left, and then the film crew show the slope at the point where he landed. Here: - YouTube
It’s actually a pretty interesting film. It’s got the usual Herzogian hyperbole, but lots of really beautiful footage of ski jumping both gone bad and beautifully well. Unfortunately it’s not on Netflix anymore.
Moving to The Game Room.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
There are three sports I “get”: baseball, ski jumping, and figure skating. I need to start a figure skating thread.
You need to start a new sport. Skate jumping ball!
It does happen occasionally. Including Ahonen who overjumpes the slope in Panica.
I have nothing to add except that I’m so glad Telemark made it in to comment on this thread.
My expertise doesn’t come from my pastime of tele skiing, but in having a member of the 1984 and 1988 US Olympic Ski Jumping team as a roommate in college. Since my college had two of the 5 members of the team, and another 2 lived in the next town, I occasionally had 4/5ths of the US team in my dorm room. Eventually it rubs off on you. 