Ski flying, World Cup in Oberstdorf: Fly up to 500 meters – physically there is a green light

Andreas Goldberger remembers it clearly. Finally, on March 17, 1994, he didn’t want to jump at all. The ski jumping hill in Planica was not properly prepared, the landing slope was uneven, and it was only a jump in training for the World Championships almost exactly 30 years ago. But the thrill won out: the facility in Slovenia had recently been expanded, and flights over 200 meters seemed possible for the first time in history. The organizers even offered a car for the first jump of this quality. The weather was good, so Goldberger jumped. And he flew. And flew. And flew. At 202 meters. World record! “It’s crazy,” the Austrian said at the time. “It was sensational,” he says today.

Goldberger still didn’t get the car. When he landed his historic flight, he put his hand in the snow on the uneven slope. This made the jump invalid for official recognition. “It doesn’t matter to me whether I made the jump,” said the Austrian at the time. “I am proud that I was the first person to fly 200 meters on skis,” he says today. The car left anyway: just 20 minutes after Goldberger, the Finn Toni Nieminen correctly and officially jumped 203 meters.

Prizes for distance records are now prohibited according to the official competition regulations of the International Ski Federation (Fis). The protection of the jumpers is above all else, including at the current Ski Flying World Cup in Oberstdorf (February 23rd to 25th). Higher, yes, faster too, but at some point you can’t go any further down the slope, at least in practice. In theory, jumps of 300 meters and even 500 meters have already been simulated on the computer. The findings are tempting, but at the same time pose major risks.

“You can’t practice ski flying”

As limitless is the feeling of freedom in the air, ski flying is just as limited in practice. There are only four ski jumps in the world where distances beyond 200 meters can be flown: in Vikersund (Norway), in Planica, at Kulm in Styria and in Oberstdorf. This is one of the many challenges for the athletes – they rarely come across one of these giants.

The Heini-Klopfer ski jump in Oberstdorf is one of only four intact flying facilities in the world

Quelle: Getty Images/Bjoern Reichert/NordicFocus

“You can’t train ski flying,” says Sören Müller. He is the lead ski jumping scientist at the Institute for Applied Training Science (IAT) in Leipzig, which works closely with the German Ski Association (DSV). One obstacle: ski flying is virtually non-existent in summer. The jumps are not equipped with mats and are only prepared in winter when a competition is taking place.

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The small number of ski flying competitions makes the comprehensive use of measurement technology difficult, explains Müller, which is why there is hardly any data for flying. But that’s not a big problem, a lot can be derived from ski jumping, where a number of physical and physical variables are collected. “The basic physics and processes are the same. You do a run-up, jump off, assume the flight attitude and land,” says Müller.

Ten high-speed cameras collect data in Oberstdorf

For the measurements, the IAT breaks down a jump into three phases: the approach, the take-off and the flight. The focus is primarily on the take-off and the transition into flight. This is where the later width is decided. In order to understand exactly what happens in these few tenths of a second, the DSV invested in numerous measuring instruments on the ski jumps in Oberstdorf, one of the main training facilities in Germany. A total of ten high-speed cameras are installed on the facility so that the flight can be analyzed at every phase. From the data collected in this way, the scientists can derive the individual strengths and reserves of the jumpers.

Ten cameras capture every moment of the jump. Here: the crucial tenths of a second of Markus Eisenbichler’s take-off and transition into the flying position

Source: Dr. Soren Müller

“The international competition always looks a little jealously at these opportunities and resources,” says Müller and adds: “But that also explains why we have to weigh up very carefully whether complex diagnostics are worth it.” When it comes to ski flying, the answer is usually no.

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Among other things, the take-off force at the take-off table is measured. The athletes push off with less force than many people assume. With a normal stretch jump, more strength is usually developed than with a jump with skis, explains Müller: “Other muscles are used through the movement of the arms, the upper body, but also through the greater extension in the ankle,” explains Müller. The smaller the jump and the shorter the flight, the greater the importance of the jump.

Aerodynamics trumps power

But ski flying is not about jumping as high as possible, but about using your strength effectively to get into the flying position as quickly as possible. Aerodynamics trumps strength: “A good ski pilot is definitely characterized by the high efficiency of his aerodynamic body and ski position,” says Müller.

The total force during the jump (red) in contrast to the theoretical case that an athlete drives over the table without using any force (black)

Source: Dr. Soren Müller

And with optimal posture you can go far down. The current world record was set by the Austrian Stefan Kraft in 2017. He flew 253.5 meters – a historical milestone.

In 1936, Sepp Bradl became the first person to jump over 100 meters, 140 years after the first written mention of a sporting activity similar to ski jumping. At that time, Norwegian soldiers still used the roofs of houses and barns as jumps. The first ski jumps, the forerunners of today’s facilities, were built in the second half of the 19th century.

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Andreas Goldberger and Toni Nieminen then set the next milestone with their jumps over 200 meters. For Goldberger it was a truly dramatic experience: “The forces in the last part of the flight were intense. The pressure on the skis was so extreme that I almost slipped out of my jumping shoes,” remembers the Austrian. A limit experience at just 200 meters. How realistic is it that the next hundred mark will fall in the future?

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Scientist Sören Müller has already set up a simulation calculation to investigate the physical forces of a 500-meter flight. A Slovenian group from the University of Ljubljana conducted research in the same direction, investigating the limits of a flight over 300 meters based on a 233-meter jump by multiple Olympic champion Simon Ammann from Switzerland.

Theoretically, athletes can fly for 16 seconds

Both studies come to the same conclusion: In theory, such jumps are possible. “The jumpers can fly along the slope at a relatively constant speed,” explains Müller. The jumper only becomes slightly faster as the distance and length of the flight increases, because “at a certain point the force of the air cancels out the speed of the jumper’s fall”. Ammann flew at a speed of 116 km/h in his real jump and 118 km/h in the simulated flight.

Karl Geiger became ski flying world champion in 2020

Quelle: Getty Images/Bjoern Reichert/NordicFocus

So physically there is a green light, but concerns remain. In a hypothetical jump of 500 meters, the athletes would be in the air for around 16 seconds. Twice the flight duration also means twice the risk of turbulence in the air. Under laboratory conditions, the scientists also assume ideal angles between the body and the skis and the V-position of the skis, while the forces acting on the athlete remain relatively the same. “I imagine it would be extremely difficult to calculate the wind over such a period of time,” says Müller. In addition, ski flying facilities of these dimensions do not yet exist. Existing ski jumps would have to be converted and expanded at a great cost.

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The jumpers themselves still don’t want to close their minds to big dreams. “I hope that flights to the 300 meter mark will be possible at some point. That would be gigantic,” said former world record holder Anders Fannemel, who landed after 251.5 meters in 2015, in a WELT interview in 2016. And Karl Geiger, who became ski flying world champion in 2020, said: “50 years ago, no one would have thought that it would be over 200 meters. If it’s safe, if I have it under control and the forces don’t become extremely dangerous, then I’ll be there.”

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