Ski Jumping

Jumping off hills on skis was pioneered by Norwegian Sondre Norheim in the 19th century, and the activity had developed into a full sport by the 20th century. It has been contested at the Olympic Winter Games since the start, at Chamonix 1924. Originally dominated by participants from Norway, the top competitors now also hail from Finland, Austria, and other countries from Central Europe.

In 2009, women began competing at World Championships. Women’s ski jumping débuted at the Winter Olympics at Sochi 2014. There are two types of hills used, a normal hill and a large hill. Until Beijing 2022, three men’s events were contested at the Olympics – a normal hill event, a large hill event, and a team event –. along with a lone individual normal hill competition for women. That edition of the Winter Games also brought the début of a mixed normal hill team event. The programme for the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics had two significant changes, with the début of a women’s large hill event, and the substitution of the men’s team large hill event by the “[super team}(/results/15001060)” event (instead of four jumpers competing in two rounds, two jumpers now competing in three rounds).

Two ski jumpers – Simon Ammann (SUI) and Matti Nykänen (FIN) – have won four gold medals in the sport. Nykänen is the only ski jumper with a total of five Olympic medals. On the women’s side, Norway’s Anna Odine Strøm and Slovenia’s Nika Križnar-Vodan lead the overall and gold medal count, both with three medals and two golds. Križnar-Vodan’s compatriot Urša Bogataj is the only other female ski jumper with two Olympic titles.

The exact size of the hills, most commonly measured by the distance of the calculation point (or K-point), has gradually increased. In 1924, the normal hill K-point was 71 metres; in 2010, it was at 95 metres, while the large hill was at 125 metres.

The sport is governed internationally by the former Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS), which was founded on 2 February 1924 during the Chamonix Olympics. The FIS succeeded the Internationale Skikommission (CIS), which had been formed on 18 February 1910 in Christiania (today Oslo, Norway). Despite keeping the acronym FIS, on 26 May 2022, at the FIS Congress at Milano, Italy, its name was changed to the International Ski & Snowboard Federation. The FIS not only governs ski jumping, but also the Olympic disciplines of Alpine skiing, cross country skiing, freestyle skiing, Nordic combined, and snowboarding. As of January 2026, the FIS has 141 affiliated member nations.