Aerial Ski Training and Olympic Ski Jumping

Aerial skiers can train using trampoline, bungee trampoline, gymnastics equipment, plastic ramps that slide like snow, diving boards, and ramps leading to pools of water. I love trampoline. I love water. Had to combine the two, so I went to the Park City Utah Olympic training facility. Click to view these movies that I took of young skiers practicing.

Aerial skiing is part of Freestyle skiing, along with moguls, jumps, and other ski specialties that change from year to year. Ski ballet, (later renamed acroski) was a demonstration sport in the 1988 and 1992 Winter Olympics.

In Ski Jumping, skiers ski down a high take-off ramp, then jump, and glide as far as possible before landing. Anders Johnson, ranked 100th in the world, made the US Olympic team for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. His sister Alissa, ranked 11th in the world, could not go. Olympic officials refused to allow women's ski jump even though the International Ski Federation (FIS) recommended in a 114-1 vote in 2006 that the women's event be included, and rules since 1998 state that new sports added to the Olympics must include women's events.

Reasons given included unfortunate statements including the phrase "dilution of medals" (by IOC President Jacques Rogge) and that, "Ski jumping is just too dangerous for women...seems not to be appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view" (according to FIS President Gian Franco Kasper).

Girls, dressed as boys were known to compete in ski jumping events at Nordic competitions until the 1950s. In 1911, Austrian countess, Paula Lamberg, jumped 22 meters wearing the required women's uniform of the time - a skirt. Read more.

Related:

• Safe Strong Knees for Jumping - Fast Fitness - Third Group Functional Training Exercise: Ankles and Knees in Jumps and Landings
• Better Balance for Leaps - Fast Fitness - Leap for Balance on Leap Year
• 91 Year Old Water Skier

Random Fitness Fixer:

• Time of Death From Body Temperature?