This week in Ladies Ski Jumping
(picture of Sarah Hendrickson by Clint Jones)
Last weekend, the female ski jumping circus went to Oberstdorf, Germany.
Both competitions were won by Daniela Iraschko-Stolz, which Carina Vogt and Sara Takanashi being on the podium on Saturday and Carina Vogt and Taylor Henrich completing the podium on Sunday. While Iraschko-Stolz was the only one really going behind the k-point of 95m with Saturday's first try of 101m, most athletes stuck to the k-point, which made it a rather frustrating competition for viewers and athletes. On Sunday it became even worse with the top three being the only ones to jump about the k-point.
Sarah Hendrickson's statement to the gate choice of the jury was as follows:
„Another thing I would like to address is the competition jury in charge of the speed and gate choices this weekend. I was very very disappointed by how little speed we were given. I'll try to explain my thought process: I was born a girl. I didn't have a choice in that decision. Although, just because I was born a girl doesn't not mean that I don't want to ski jump. I love the feeling of flying and it simply doesn't compare to anything else in this world. We don't want to be compared to the men we just want to have far jumps. We are fully capable of jumping just as far as the men despite the differences of being female. I don't know what this jury in Oberstdorf was thinking when they had three jumps over K and refused to give us more speed. Were you scared to watch the girls jump far? I know safety is number one but that comes into affect when people jump PAST hill size... Which is 106 meters on this hill, 20 meters further than the majority of our strongest girls. Women's ski jumping has made so much progress in these past four years and this competition looks really bad for us. I assure you the level is high and it was purely the lack of speed that put us to a limited distance. Thank you Oberstdorf for holding a women's World Cup, but please, next time believe in us women and our endless hours of training.“
Despite of this, we would like to outline the amazing successes of Taylor Henrich (19, CAN), who was already winning the qualification in Oberstdorf and made it to the third place on Sunday, which is her best result ever!
Nita Englund from team USA came in as 7th in the first race in Oberstdorf. She was second in the qualification and was able to secure the 8th place in the following competition, also marking her most incredible results so far! Congratulations to both of them!
The ladies World-Cup continues this weekend in Hinzenbach with competitons on Saturday at 14:15 and Sunday at 12:00!
