Archives and Miscellaneous Info
Old Stuff, Odds & Ends, etc.
This is our catch-all page ... never know what you’ll find!
If you can’t find something elsewhere on our site, especially if it’s something that used to be on the site
before we revamped it, you may find it here. We’ll likely be adding some pages, and perhaps moving
some things around. We expect to be fine-tuning for quite some time.
40th Anniversary of “The Agony of Defeat” ... 03/21/1970
ABC’s Wide World of Sports created misperception that still exists in USA
Few Americans know anything at all about ski jumping, but they know “that guy who crashed on Wide
World of Sports ... the agony of defeat.” There are still people today who believe the skier, Vinko
Bogataj, from what was then Yugoslavia, was seriously hurt; some even believe he was killed. Not true
... but had ABC included a disclaimer, their dramatic intro would have been ... well ... less dramatic. By
the time they were showing that clip weekly, the number of kids taking up ski jumping on small hills in
our snow-sport states was declining, partly because of the growth of recreational downhill skiing. But
the impact of this single video clip was to make it more difficult TO THIS DAY to recruit kids to even
give it a try. Fears of liability lawsuits loomed large. Towns which had ski jumps on public property
often just tore them down ... many clubs did the same, and disbanded.
Dave Seminara, a Chicago-based writer, has written an interesting article about this incident and its
aftermath. He even interviewed Vinko, now a well-respected artist.
It’s enjoyable and informative, and contains a few surprise elements that you might not already know.
Dave’s article Vinko’s paintings Is ski jumping dangerous?
About Ski Jumping
Hill sizes and scoring explained
The two hill sizes are referred to as “normal” (NH) and “large” (LH). The “par” distance on the NH is 95
meters, about 312 feet. It’s designed so good jumpers will fly that far ... or farther. A jumper gets 60
points for jumping to that spot, known as the K point. This can also be called a “K95” hill. Jumpers get
two points ADDED to the 60 point score for every meter they fly BEYOND the K point. They’ll LOSE 2
points for each meter they land short of the K point. The “par” distance on the large hill is 125 meters,
or about 410 feet (K125). They’ll get 60 points for flying that far, and 1.8 points per meter added or
subtracted from their score for going beyond (or landing short of) 125 meters.
There are judges, too, who can award up to 60 points (20 per judge) for good technique. Most of the
good jumpers get between 16 and 19 points for technique from each of 3 judges (there are 5 judges;
high and low scores are discarded). Typically, a good jumper will probably get about 55 points per
round from the judges, and about 65 points for flying a bit beyond the K point, or 120 points total per
jump. In a two-jump event, a score of 240 is good. The best jumpers will get many more points
because they’ll fly far beyond the K point; the best often score near 300 points, because the distance
points are unlimited.
About Nordic Combined
How the sports of ski jumping and cross country racing are ... combined!
Nordic Combined athletes have to be good at ski jumping AND cross-country racing. They have a
round of jumping, and the distances are scored in points, then converted to a time differential for the
start of a cross-country race. The athlete who jumps farthest is the first to start the race, and each
athlete’s start time is some seconds (and fractions of seconds) behind the leader. Often the best
jumpers aren’t the best racers, and viceversa, which makes for some thrilling finishes to the race
portion. So watch the jump round, and watch the starting intervals for the race. You’ll see that the
US has some guys who can really fly, and really move quickly in the race competition as well.
So ... How Dangerous is Ski Jumping ... REALLY?
Perception is NOT reality ... Excerpt below ... read full editorial
The sport of ski jumping was given a huge black eye in the US by way of the lead-in to
ABC’s Wide World of Sports, which week after week for many years showed an unusual fall
by a world-class ski jumper. He was Vinko Bogataj, from what was then Yugoslavia, and it
was his third jump of the day, on March 21, 1970, at Oberstdorf, Germany. The announcer
had just said “The Thrill of Victory” as the video played some joyous moment, and then his
voice turned ominous as he intoned “The Agony of Defeat” just as Vinko did something
extremely rare ... fell in the inrun, slid down, then tumbled off the takeoff.
Left unsaid was what happened to Vinko. A mild concussion. Shamefully, ABC allowed
millions of people believe, for all those years, that something too awful to show had befallen
him. Yes, Vinko was hauled to a hospital for observation, where he promptly phoned the ski
club to confirm his competitor registration for the following year. He returned to jumping,
later to coaching. Today, Vinko indulges his passion for painting (art, not houses), and still
thrives in his hometown of Lesce, Slovenia. Unfortunately, his sport has struggled to
survive in the US and Canada, and that video, repeated weekly for years, sure didn’t help.
Meanwhile, in the rest of the snow-sports world, ski jumping and Nordic Combined, in which
athletes must jump AND race cross-country, have thrived. Today, they’re on a par with
things like Formula 1 racing and professional soccer in terms of TV exposure, live
attendance at events, sponsorship, sanctioning fees for World Cup tournaments, and
endorsements and rock star status for top athletes. The talent pool of youngsters in those
countries is undreamed of here, but in countries where it’s popular, there’s no shortage of
kids, facilities, coaching, and many levels of regular competition. And money for all that.
So it’s a high-participation sport. It’s their equivalent of Little League. Are all the parents
of all these kids exposing their hapless youngsters to terrible risks? Hardly.
So ... does the reality match perception when it comes to the dangers of ski jumping? NO!
The International Ski Federation (FIS) is the governing body for all snow sports worldwide.
They meticulously track injuries for elite athletes in six disciplines. Ski jumping comes out
as the SECOND SAFEST of all, with only cross-country ranking as safer. What’s the most
dangerous? Snowboarding. READ the FIS REPORT (6 page PDF)
The phenomenal success of the US Nordic Combined team at the 2010 Olympics burst into
public consciousness with the amazing finish in the first NC event, where Johnny Spillane took the
silver medal, Todd Lodwick finished 4th, and Billy Demong placed 6th. They then took silver in the
team relay. To top it all off, Demong won gold and Spillane grabbed another silver in the LH/10K
individual competition. Never a US medal in 84 years of Olympic competitin, and four of ‘em in
Vancouver! NC involves jumping, and there are some kids who are going to want to give it a try. See
what jumping looks like at beginner level ... KID VIDEO
SO ... WHAT IF YOUR KID WANTS TO TRY IT??? If your kid, or the son or daughter of
a friend or relative expresses an interest in ski jumping, look at it realistically. It is NOT the
wild and crazy sport that’s been ingrained in the American mind. If you live near a jumping
facility, they’ll have coaches and a junior program. Kids start small ... on jumps “no bigger
than a breadbox.” Think about when you were a kid. When you got your first pair of skis,
and hadn’t even figured out yet how to turn or stop, didn’t you and the other kids build up a
little jump in someone’s sloped back yard and try to see how far you could jump? Kids are
HARD WIRED to do this ... and to want to do it! Start young, start small, start with coaching
and parental supervision. It’s a great sport, it takes years to perfect the skills, and parental
confidence will come along with the development of your young athlete.
Ski jumping and Nordic combined will never be mass participation sports here in the USA,
but I’d like to think that in the future it might be just a bit easier to recruit kids to try it, and
get THEIR PARENTS to even consider it. It won’t be for everybody, but it’s rewarding and
exciting for those whose tiny taste of flight makes them want to continue. Thanks for your
time in reading this. Look at our Regional Clubs page and our Schedule & Results
page via links above, to find out where you can jumpers in action. It’s amazing! In an effort
to be honest, we must tell you ... if you hope to see crashes, you’ll be really bored.
To read or print the full editorial ... CLICK HERE (3 page PDF).
Last High-School Ski Jumping League Thrives in NH
New Hampshire is the only state that still has ski jumping as a school sport
Josh Fischel has written a terrific article about ski jumping at the most basic amateur level.
It captures the spirit of this marvelous sport in an atmosphere far removed from World Cup
and the Olympics ... click here to read.
© 1999 - 2010 KJA & Associates
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