Women’s ski flying: Successful ski flying premiere for women

Katharina Althaus had tears in her eyes, even though her dream of ski flying had just come true after many years of waiting. But it wasn’t the only one that should come true this weekend. “I wanted to fly over 200 meters, I dreamed of that even as a child,” said the three-time world champion this winter, describing her emotional state. With their German record of 198.5 meters in the trial run, the ski jumpers were only missing a tiny bit on this historic day. And a few minutes later, Althaus found her smile again at Vikersund’s »Monsterbakken«: »It was cool to be able to write history.«

This feeling united the 15 women who were allowed to contest their first official ski flying competition in Norway on this Sunday morning in ideal weather conditions. After each successful jump, the pioneers of the supreme discipline of ski jumping hugged each other, there was a lot of laughter and lots of tears of joy. In addition, of course, there was a spectacular hunt for a world record on the day when the »level tie« became reality on the largest facility in the world: the Slovenian Ema Klinec finally got the first record for the women with 226 meters. Her commanding triumph also earned her €40,000 for overall victory in the lucrative Raw Air Tour. Althaus, who placed fourth in ski flying, secured 15,000 euros as second overall, Selina Freitag, third, 5,000.

However, it was much more important that the first 90 flights for the women this weekend went over the stage without a single fall. The best jumpers in the world proved convincingly that they can hold their own even on the largest hill with enormous pressure in the air and a landing speed of over 100 kilometers per hour. That’s exactly what critics like the Austrian “ski jumping professor” Toni Innauer had doubted last summer. “The difference to the male colleagues is not so much in the sporting ability, but in the problems to be expected with a typical ski flying fall,” wrote Innauer in a letter to the world association. He saw “important biomechanical, medical and ethical-moral arguments” against the introduction.

Nevertheless, the International Ski Association Fis scheduled and carefully prepared the premiere. Only the top 15 of the Raw Air Tour in Norway, which only jumped on large hills, were allowed to participate. The Austrian Julia Mühlbauer, who actually qualified, gave up voluntarily after injuring a disc in the fall: “It’s too dangerous for me, my flight system is still too unstable.” The jury also showed responsibility: the first training session on Friday was canceled due to unsettled weather conditions. In the following six rounds, she acted with a great deal of sensitivity in the run-up design.

“It was only an effort to overcome on the first flight, after that it just made me want to,” praised team world champion Anna Rupprecht, double world champion Freitag couldn’t get the “grin” off her face after the “great flights”. And Katharina Althaus emphasized once again that »ski flying is no more dangerous for us women than for men. Our body can take it.« Flight pioneer Eva Ganster had already proven that as a leader in February 1997 at the Kulm. Her then 167 meters even made it into the Guinness Book of Records.

Even after that, however, it remained a tough fight for equal rights to this day. A group of top jumpers wanted to win admission to the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. At that time they suffered another defeat, but their advance could no longer be stopped. In 2009 the first female world champion in history was crowned, in 2011 women celebrated their World Cup premiere. The breakthrough came on February 11, 2014, when Carina Vogt was crowned the first Olympic champion in Sochi.

However, the last and most important male bastion in aviation fell this weekend with ski flying. World champion Alexandria Loutitt even broke the Canadian national record of her colleague MacKenzie Boyd-Clowes (224 meters) with 225 meters. Katharina Althaus didn’t quite go that far: “Now I definitely have to continue so that I can fly over 200 meters next winter.” Then the second ski flying event could take place in her home town of Oberstdorf.