Tournament in Madison WI
Competition for men & women followed women's training camp
Twenty-eight young women participated in a training camp June 18-21 in Madison WI. The Sharon Hoffman photo at left shows those who were present on Thursday morning ... click photo to view larger image. Coaching these young female athletes were Lindsey Van, Alissa Johnson, Brenna Ellis, and Abby Hughes, all of Park City and the US Ski Team, plus Karin Friberg, and Elisabeth Anderson. Other coaches included former competitors Karla Keck, Director of the VISA Women's Ski Jumping Team, and Blair Tomten, Central Division Women's Chairperson, and Taylor Lyons. A tournament for men and women was held on Sunday, June 22. For results, please visit our Schedule & Results page, link at left.

Dan Englund is King of the Hill at Norge
Zak Hammill second by a half-meter, Will Schott takes third
A pair of Kiwanis Ski Club jumpers from Iron Mountain MI blasted their way down the hill Saturday evening, June 14, at the Norge Ski Club in Fox River Grove IL. Dan Englund flew 77 meters to edge Zak Hammill. Madison's Will Schott was 3rd. See pictures and results (including results of junior competitions on the smaller hills) at www.norgeskiclub.com.  There are also links to results on our Schedule & Results page, link at left.

Art Devlin Memorial Unveiled in Lake Placid
US Olympian, later TV commentator, honored in his home town
Don West, webmaster of SkiJumpEast.com, has posted an excellent article, complete with photos, of the recent dedication of the Art Devlin Memorial in Lake Placid. Art Devlin was one of the top US jumpers in the 1950s, a three-time Olympian, and later an outstanding television commentator ... back when ski jumping coverage was more common in the USA.

Women in 2010 Petition Over 8900 Names!
To read and sign online petition, click here ... WSJ2010.com
Deedee Corradini and Karla Keck speak in Vancouver 2/24/08 ... YouTube video
FIS official Kasper explains "reasons" for exclusion in 2006 ABC News video
Hear Kasper and Canada's Dick Pound "explaining" in YouTube Video
Rogge says women would DILUTE medals!  LISTEN ... then GET THE FACTS!
See who's been signing:   ski jumping people ... those from other sports
The folks at Women's Ski Jumping USA, www.wsjusa.com, have worked for years to develop this sport for women in ALL countries. They've been instrumental in building a great base of athletes here in the US, but they've also worked tirelessly (and successfully) in getting the FIS to create a women's series, the Ladies Continental Cup (LCOC), and in getting the FIS to recommend, by a vote of 114-1, that the IOC include women's jumping in the 2010 Olympics. Despite this overwhelming vote of confidence by the FIS, the IOC decided in November 2006 to keep the door nailed shut for female athletes in the sport of ski jumping. Jacques Rogge, IOC president, reiterated his opposition on Feb 28, 2008, stating that including women would "DILUTE" other medals! The next day, Feb 29, WSJUSA issued a FACTUAL RESPONSE. Please read this document, then if you haven't already done so, please read and SIGN THE PETITION!

BABES in BOYLAND!     Click photo to enlarge the image (P Jerome photo).
On Jan 5, at the Canadian National Championships, US jumper Lindsey Van (R) set the hill record of 105.5 meters on the NEW 90M OLYMPIC JUMP in Vancouver, and Jessica Jerome (L) flew 102. Canadian Greg Baxter set the men's record at 99 meters.  In the 90M event, the men's class was required to use a lower start gate, resulting in slightly less takeoff speed. We also want to point out that on the 120M hill, men and women started from the same gate ... Canadian Stefan Read set the hill record at 133 meters, with Van setting the women's record on the big hill at 128.5 meters. Complete official scoresheets from this event available via Schedule & Results link at left.   You will also find links to scoresheets from the US National Championships in March 2008 ... the women performed well there, too!

Read Text of Lawsuit Against VANOC
MAY 22 PRESS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS & VIDEO LINKS from CTV.CA
  (for video, click "CTV Newset: Women ski jumpers hold presser" to right of story)
Read the  PRESS RELEASE  and the  STATEMENT of COMPLAINT (lawsuit)
There was a press conference at 9:00 Thursday morning in Vancouver, at the law offices of Davis LLP, regarding the lawsuit filed Wednesday against VANOC for failing to include women's ski jumping in the program of the 2010 Olympics. Among those attending were Ross Clark, Q.C. lawyer and partner at Davis LLP, Deedee Corradini, President of WSJUSA and former mayor of Salt Lake City, Karla Keck, retired US jumper and former US National Champion, Marie-Pierre Morin, retired Canadian jumper and former Canadian National Champion, plus two active US athletes, Lindsey Van and Jessica Jerome. Six of the world's top ten female jumpers (including Van & Jerome), from four nations, are named as individual plaintiffs. Read the FULL TEXT OF THE LAWSUIT via the STATEMENT of COMPLAINT link above!  For quick read, see pages 1-2, 5-6, and 15-21.

Ski Channel Will Cover Women's Jumping
New network will launch in fall ... has agreement with WSJUSA
We'll bring you more on this later, but Steve Bellamy, founder of The Tennis Channel, will be launching The Ski Channel this fall, and they will be covering women's ski jumping. Click here to read their official PRESS RELEASE. This release coincided with the women's ski jumping press conference held in Vancouver on May 22.

ESPN Feature on Women Hits AGAIN!
Report nails IOC's continuing refusal to admit women to Olympics
On Sunday, May 4, ESPN's "Outside the Lines" broadcast an outstanding feature about the continuing refusal of the International Olympic Committee to include women's ski jumping in the 2010 Games in Vancouver. This is the only event in which women have NEVER been permitted to participate, and this report exposes some of the factual inconsistencies in their excuses for keeping the door closed. We've been informed that the full-length video may not be available online due to contractual obligations with the USOC and NBC. You can continue to view the one-minute promo. Be sure to click the fifth star just below the video ... ESPN does track votes! This story was repeated on May 19, and ESPN continues to follow the developments.

Hundreds of people have signed the online petition since the ESPN feature was broadcast on Sunday, May 4 and again May 19 (scroll down to find links to petition website). It's clear from reading the responses that most were shocked to learn that the old men of the IOC refuse to allow women to ski jump at the Olympics, and many were very angry. If you want to read 'em for yourself, go to the petition page and click the link at the top of the list of the most recent 20 signers, which is on the right side of the page. From there, you can scroll down through the most recent 50, and links at the bottom of the page will let you navigate backwards to the page labeled 8150; that's about where the petition stood prior to the ESPN feature.

USOC Responds to Congressional Request
Wanted info about women's jumping:  Letter to USOC . . . USOC Response
Reps. John D. Dingell (D-MI), Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Bart Stupak (D-MI), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, sent a letter on April 11 to the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) regarding the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refusing to finally admit women’s ski jumping into the 2010 Olympic Games which will be held in Vancouver, Canada.  The two lawmakers expressed concern that the IOC did not apply uniform standards in its decision to turn down this sport based on too few participants and too few nations.   Dingell and Stupak pointed to Olympic events with even fewer participants, such as women’s bobsled, luge and skeleton. They have requested documenation from USOC regarding what they have done, and plan to do, to support the inclusion of women's ski jumping at the Olympic Games. Click links above to read the original letter and the USOC's response.

US Men's Development Team Report
"Project X" is independent of US Ski Team ... read season-end summary
For many years, the US Ski team has funded one or two top athletes to compete in World Cup and the European Summer Grand Prix. With the retirement last year of our two top jumpers, Alan Alborn and Clint Jones, the US Ski Team dropped the men's program entirely. It had been years since they'd funded any development program for younger jumpers. Before the start of last season, they named six women who had been developed through the Women's Ski Jumping USA organization in Park City, which was also INDEPENDENT of the US Ski Team. The women's program had achieved strong results in the Ladies' Continental Cup, and had attracted VISA sponsorship. We applaud the formation of this INDEPENDENT MEN'S PROGRAM, which has become known as "Project X," and we hope they'll have similar success in developing young athletes! Their greatest need now, just as it has been for the women's development program, is for FUNDING. We encourage individuals and companies to DIRECTLY support INDEPENDENT development programs. This will result in their dollars supporting ONLY ski jumping!

ABC News Feature:  Women vs IOC
Brian Rooney report aired Mar 19 on World News Tonight ... VIEW VIDEO
The IOC's continuing exclusion of women from Olympic ski jumping was addressed very well in a story by Brian Rooney on Wed Mar 19. It had good footage of women jumping, and Rooney pointed out that "all they need is to be invited" (to the Olympics). Three Canadian women were interviewed; Zoya Lynch, Nata De Leeuw, & Katie Willis. It pointed out that American Lindsey Van holds the record of 105.5 meters on the new 90 meter OLYMPIC jump in Vancouver, and showed IOC President Jacques Rogge making his discredited argument about "not enough participants." Then it displayed in bold figures how many women (34) competed in the new Snowboard Cross event in 2006, and showed that about 80 female jumpers internationally would be potential Olympians. The ABC video is preceded by a 30-second commercial.

Two years ago, World News Tonight ran an excellent feature by John Quinones, including interviews with several of our US athletes ... click "2006 ABC News Video" link in next story. For links to many related articles, visit Women's Ski Jumping USA by clicking their logo below right, then go to the "WSJ in the News" page.

National Championships - US Season Finale
Spillane & Jerome grab normal hill titles:  USST report   scoresheet
Johnson & Jerome national big-hill jump titles:  USST report   scoresheet
Demong wins NC Combined, Jerome tops women's demo:  USST report
Spillane wins NC Sprint, Jerome wins women's demo:  Sprint scoresheet
Keate & Jerome win Friday SuperTour jump:   USST report   scoresheet
Team of Delaney & Demong wins SuperTour NC Sprint:   NC scoresheet

The US ski jumping and Nordic Combined season ended on Sunday March 16 at Utah Olympic Park, where Johnny Spillane won the men's national championship on the normal hill, and the women's title went to Jessica Jerome. Joining Spillane on the men's podium were Bill Demong and Anders Johnson; the top three were separated by only 2.5 points. Sharing the women's podium with Jerome were Brenna Ellis and Abby Hughes. On Saturday morning, Anders Johnson won his first national big-hill title, and Jessica Jerome won her fourth. Sharing the men's podium with Johnson were Johnny Spillane and Nick Alexander. Jerome was joined on the women's podium by thirteen year old Sarah Hendrickson and Abby Hughes. Later in the day, Spillane won the NC Sprint event, followed by Bill Demong. A women's demo class was also included; Jerome won, with Hendrickson second. Demong and Jerome won the Nordic Combined titles. Complete results available via links above.

The SuperTour series finale was held Friday morning. Skyler Keate took top honors among the men with a flight of 130.5 meters, and Jessica Jerome flew 129.0 meters to top the women's field. Behind Keate in the men's class were Chris Lamb and Johnny Lyons. Jerome's teammates Brenna Ellis & Avery Ardovino joined her on the podium. The event was held to one round by weather conditions. In the evening, Colin Delaney and Bill Demong teamed up to win the SuperTour Nordic Combined Sprint.

Long Flight Videos!
Johnny Lyons flies 140M in training at Klingenthal GER
We recently received a great video of Johnny Lyons of St Paul MN, with a flight of 140 meters (459 feet) during training at Klingenthal GER in August 2007 ... Lyons 140M.   The world record flight of 239 meters (784 feet) was set in Planica, Slovenia in 2005 by Norway's Bjorn-Einar Romoeren ... Romoeren 239M.   The longest flight ever by an American was at Planica in 2002 by Alan Alborn, who flew 221.5 meters (727 feet). That flight is shown in the 8-minute ski jumping video, which you can see via link at right.

American Ski Jumping Hall of Fame
Second group of inductees announced in March 2008
Check out the virtual American Ski Jumping Hall of Fame, which resides within the AmericanSkiJumping.com website. There's a "Hall of Fame" link at the top of the homepage, and the HOF page includes a link to a nomination form. It was formally introduced during the Red Wing MN festivities on June 17, 2007. The second group of inductees was announced March 26, 2008.

History on Display in Red Wing MN
St James Hotel is site of permanent ski jumping exhibit
On June 17, 2007, as part of Red Wing's 150th anniversary celebration, a permanent historic display was unveiled at the historic St James Hotel, recognizing the city as the "Birthplace of American Ski Jumping." The first North American distance record was set in 1887 in Red Wing by a Norwegian immigrant, Mikkel Hemmestvedt. The city was the home of the pioneering Aurora Ski Club, which hosted US National Championships in 1928 & 1936.

Year-End Homepage Access ... All Years
See stories & coverage from the end of 2008 and earlier seasons
Each spring, we archive our homepage with end-of-year stories. You can view these pages via the links below.

• 2008 - IOC's Exclusion of Women Dominates 2008 News
• 2007 - Malysz #1 in WC, Van & Demong US Champions
• 2006 - US Women #1 Team, Janda Wins World Cup
• 2005 - Romoeren Flies 239M at Planica
• 2004 - Ahonen World Champ, Women Fly in Norway
• 2003 - Hautamaeki 231M, Spillane Wins First US Gold
• 2002 - Kids Learning to Jump, Alborn Flies 221.5M

Our Visitor Traffic Continues To Grow
Olympics, Women's Continental Cup drew 100K+ visitors
During the winter 2005-2006 season, we set all-time visitor records. We had 22K+ visitors in January, 42K+ visitors for February, and 20K+ in March. We drew just about 100K for the winter 2006 competition season from December through March, at about 5 minutes per visit. We averaged well over 300 per day throughout the summer, up significantly over last year, with much of the increase driven by the Olympics.