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ISHA Newsline |
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July 24, 2004 Austrian Iraschko wins historic 90m jump for women Park City event kicks off effort to add women's jumping to Olympic schedule. PARK CITY, Utah (July 24) - Austrian Daniela Iraschko made it two wins in 24 hours Saturday night to complete a sweep of the inaugural Continental Cup women's ski jumping events - a major step as the sport looks to join the Olympic schedule - on the K90-meter hill at Utah Olympic Park. Jessica Jerome (Park City, UT) was third with Lindsey Van (also Park City) tied for fourth.
Iraschko jumped 92 and 90.5 meters, good for 226.5 points and a two-point win over Norway's Anette Sagen, the reigning women's Grand Prix champion. Iraschko got a big break when Slovenian Monika Pogladic fell on her second jump, which went 93 meters; with the fall, she tumbled to seventh place. Iraschko and Sagen also went 1-2 Friday night. Jerome was nervous as she headed to the competition, she said, "but when I got here I wondered, 'Why am I nervous? This is my home hill. I've jumped here thousands of times.' I had a terrible landing on my second jump and that really hurt me...but I'm certainly glad to be on the podium." She and Van, a close friend and also a member of the National Sports Foundation program, discussed the tricky tailwind which was part of the festive evening, creating some problems for jumpers. "We saw it gave some of the Europeans problems and Lindsey said, 'Hey, we jump with a tailwind here all the time, so we should an advantage' and we tried to jump like we do in training," said Jerome, a junior at Park City High School. Creation of a women's World Cup is the first major step toward getting ski jumping into the Olympics. It also needs to have a World Cup tour and be part of two World Championships, Bodensteiner said. "But this is the key part because FIS now recognizes women's jumping and more progress can be made." WOMEN'S CONTINENTAL CUP SKI JUMPING Women Make Jumping History at UOP
PARK CITY, Utah (July 23) - Daniela Iraschko of Austria jumped 96 meters on the last round Friday night to win the historic first women's Continental Cup ski jumping event with Lindsey Van (Park City, UT) fifth in the field of 26 women. The contest marks a major step for women's jumping, which hopes to make its way into the Olympics, perhaps as early as Vancouver in 2010. Iraschko jumped 93 and 96 meters, receiving 244.5 points while Norway's Anette Sagen, the reigning women's Grand Prix and junior world champion, jumped 94 and 91.5 meters to place second (229.5 points) at Utah Olympic Park, the 2002 Olympic jumping venue. Van, who had won a K64 competition Thursday among the international field and was No. 2 in the women's Grand Prix last season, was disappointed with her jumps of 87.5 and 90 meters, worth 222.5 points. "I have to forget this disappointment and move on. I was just trying too hard to do too much." Next best U.S. skier was another local favorite and National Ski Foundation jumper, Alissa Johnson, who was ninth. The Continental Cup was approved last month at the International Ski Federation Congress in Miami. The women compete again Saturday night at UOP after the men's SuperTour event on the normal hill. "This is the start, a really big step for us if we're going to end this situation where women's jumping is the only women's winter sport not in the Olympics," said Peter Jerome, president of Women's Ski Jumping USA. "We're taking it step by step to get to the Olympics." WOMEN'S CONTINENTAL CUP SKI JUMPING 1. Daniela Iraschko, Austria, (93-96 meters) 244.5 points |
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"This
was fantastic. They did a great job of promoting things," said U.S.
nordic Director Luke Bodensteiner as he looked at the crowd of upwards
of 1,000 spectators, "and they had two good nights of competition. The
sport's obviously growing and it's going to grow some more. This weekend
is a major step for women's jumping as tries to become an Olympic event."