Women's Ski Jumping Finally Makes a Debut in the Olympics

Carina Vogt of Germany jumps during the first round of the ladies' normal hill individual event on day four of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. via 

At the women's normal hill ski jump on Tuesday, Carina Vogt of Germany won the gold medal. Vogt's victory seemed to mean more than just being the world champion of ski jumping. 

Krasnaya Polyana, Russia — "It took 90 years for women to earn the right to ski jump in the Winter Games and just a day to crown their first Olympic champion."

Men's ski jumping has been a Winter Games event since 1924, and The International Olympic Committee have been making arguments for excluding women such as lack of history and organizations and also concerns of women that they are too fragile in managing the landings of ski jumping. However, the sport's participants and supporters made continuous efforts including a legal challenge and ended up adding the event in Sochi. Women have not actually earned the right for all three events in ski jumping (the normal hill, the large hill and a team event), but they seem to be happy to knock down the barrier to ski jumping in the Olympics and compete on the biggest sports stage.

Vogt's first jump. via

Watching the Olympics as a great sports fan, sometimes institutional reality ran counter to enjoying the equal enthusiasm and sportsmanship of male and female athletes and celebrating their accomplishments. However, now it seems like there are a lot of shifts; the margin between the number of male and female athletes is dramatically closing and new mixed-gender events are being introduced (figure skating, luge, and biathlon for this year).

An interesting fact is that among the Winter Games sports, ski jump shows the smallest discrepancy between performances of men and women and at a World Cup even in Lillehammer, five women made scores that would have placed in the top fifteen among men, according to Business Insider. On top of that, another interesting fact about the event is that unlike other sports that rely on strength and speed, being lightweight and in-flight aerodynamics are the main factors in winning. So, maybe one day they could soar past the best male jumpers.

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