Ski Jumping: There may not be any Brits taking part, but the five enthralling events at the Winter Olympic Games will be fierce and frantic nonetheless… everything you need to know ahead of the competition
- The 2022 Winter Olympics starts on February 4th and finishes on February 20th
- Winter Olympics schedule for Ski Jumping runs from 5th-14th February
- There will be a total of five Ski Jumping events taking place in Beijing
- A new event, a mixed team format, has been introduced to the Games
Perhaps nothing will get you off your seat quite like Ski Jumping at this year’s Winter Olympics, which officially gets underway on February 4.
The enthralling sport has been at the forefront of the Winter Olympics ever since the tournament’s inception back in 1924, though this year there will be a fifth event added to the schedule, being a mixed team format.
Sportsmail takes you through everything you need to know ahead of another enticing competition.
Ski Jumping has been part of the Winter Olympics since all the way back in 1924
Where is the Beijing 2022 venue for Ski Jumping?
The popular Winter Olympics event will be held at the National Ski Jumping Centre in the Zhangjiakou cluster.
The cluster will also host the snowboarding, freestyle skiing, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined and biathlon competitions throughout the Games.
In the venue, where part of the Nordic Combined competition will also take place, the large hill stands at a total height of 446 feet, with the normal hill slightly smaller at 337 feet.
Zhangjiakou’s National Ski Jumping Centre funnels straight into a 10,000-seat stadium
Incredibly, the landing funnels straight into a 10,000-seat stadium, which can be used for football matches in the summer.
The venue has been nicknamed “Snow Ruyi” due to it’s resemblance of a ‘Ruyi’, which is a traditional Chinese ornament that symbolises good luck.
With the first locally transmitted Omicron case confirmed in Beijing in recent days, Beijing 2022 organisers have pulled the plug on plans to put tickets on general sale, while foreign-based spectators were already prohibited.
Instead, there will be an ‘adapted programme’ inviting groups of spectators.
How does Ski Jumping work in the Winter Games?
There are five events at the Games. Included are the Men’s Individual Normal Hill, the Women’s Individual Normal Hill, the Men’s Individual Large Hill, the Men’s Team Large Hill and the Mixed Team event.
In each event, the jumps are scored on the distance travelled, the jump style and the landing.
In the individuals, athletes are awarded points over two jumps and the highest total score wins. In the team competition, teams of four people jump with the highest total score for all jumps winning the medal.
The formats of each event differ slightly, though. In the men’s individual events, there are two training sessions, a qualifier and the final. In the team event, two rounds of competition follow a trial round.
The women’s Normal Hill Individual goes straight into the final without an initial qualifying round.
The newly-formed mixed event is scored the same as the men’s competition and will be held on the normal hill.
Who to look out for in Beijing
Unfortunately for Ski Jumping fans from Britain, there won’t be any Team GB athletes competing at this year’s Games.
It’s set to be an intense affair nonetheless, with Slovenian Ema Klinec expected to do big things in Beijing. That’s despite being just 22 years old, having finished 14th in PyeongChang four years ago. She emerged victorious on the normal hill at the 2021 World Championships.
As for the men’s tournament, Germany’s Andreas Wellinger – who already has four Olympic medals to his name – will look to become the first athlete to successfully defend their Normal Hill title.
He will face competition from his fellow countryman Karl Geiger, who was in brilliant form at the World Championships, alongside Poland’s Piotr Zyla.