$node.PillImageNode.Description

Panel: Women's Ski Jumping USA - Soaring to New Heights

Published on16 OCT 2014

Members of Women’s Ski Jumping USA, former president Deedee Corradini and Olympic teammates Lindsey Van and Sarah Hendrickson, discuss the international growth of the sport.

Van, on what it’s like to “fly”: “The closest thing I can compare [ski jumping] to is holding your hand out of the window going 60 miles an hour – if you move your finger, your hand goes down or straight up. It’s like that, but on your whole body, so every little movement you make is huge. It’s very sensitive with a lot of aerodynamics, and you don’t feel like you’re falling. There’s something underneath you. You feel like you’re flying.”

Hendrickson, on the camaraderie of the international teams ahead of the 2014 Winter Games: “For all the countries, the goal was to make it into Sochi [in 2014], and we all had to fight together. We weren’t Americans, we weren’t French. We just wanted to compete in the Olympics and have that opportunity. So we’re really good friends with a lot of the other nations, and that’s something really unique with our sport that makes it that much more fun.”

Corradini, on her commitment to bringing women’s ski jumping to the Olympics: “I was on the organizing committee for the 2002 [Winter Olympics] in Salt Lake City, and we worked so hard to get women’s bobsledding and skeleton into the games. Nobody ever brought up ski jumping. It wasn’t until 2004 that I found out women didn’t jump in 2002 and have never jumped in the Olympics. I was flabbergasted and became convinced that something had to be done.”

 

Explore More Insights