Hill Size Magazine – Fly Girls

Text: Martyna Ostrowska

Hill Size USA

fly girls Women's ski jumping begins to be recognized internationally. The turning point were the Olympic Games in Sochi, where a competition for ladies was conducted for the first time. In a sport seemingly dominated by men, there are cases when girls turn out to be better. This applies to the United States, where, thanks to the success of the female national team and the growing popularity of women's jumping, a new project was created. Fly Girls Program is something new, because it is addressed only to girls. Its goal is to train a new generation of female ski jumpers.

Olympic dreams It all began with the Sochi competition.

This great moment in the history of ski jumping found an echo all over America.

Americans decided to use the potential of this still not popular sport and take care of the new generations. „After the Olympics we wanna get more girls into ski jumping world and in order to do this we grabbed ten girls from around the country. We want to raise them as a next generation. We don't know exactly what they're doing but we want to make sure that we have strong next generation.

We put a lot of money into a development program - Fly Girls Program. Basically we had a ten-day camp with these girls in Park City just to get them with good qualified coaches and basic training program because a lot of them don't have that where they live.” says Sarah

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Hendrickson, who was the first woman in history to ski jump during the Olympic Games. „It was a huge fight for us to finally go and compete at Olympics.

It was awesome. Obviously I didn't have the results that I wanted to because of my injury. But it was great for the sport and I think younger girls are gonna get involved because now they can become Olympians.”

The test of maturity Sarah, and her friends from the team, Lindsey Van and Nina Lussi, are ambassadors of the program implemented in the spring of 2014. „I was able to serve as a mentor for one of the girls (Kailey Bickner) and I'm looking forward to seeing her progress over the years to come.” says Lussi, who knows from her own experience, how great a role an

idol plays in the life of a young athlete.

Starting her adventure with ski jumping she looked up to her future colleague.

Lindsey Van, the 2009 World Champion from Liberec. When she was ten years old, her coach gave her a card with a dedication from Van, to convince her to jump from a K-90 hill. At that time she didn't expect, that they would be training together in the future. This is how she recalls that day: „My first jump off a K-90 was more memorable than my first, first ski jump. I think that was a sort of coming of age for me. Once you ski one of the "big hills" you know what the sport is all about and you can't wait to go further. Was I nervous? Yeah, a little, but the feeling after having accomplished that was so great. There is no doubt about it, having a trailblazer like Lindsey making a path for you to

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Illustrations: Sylwia Wojsz

Fly Girls

lindsey van Hill Size Magazine

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sarah hendrickson

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Fly Girls follow has made my life a lot easier.

I can focus simply on ski jumping and have lofty goals to strive for like the Olympics and the World Championships” she adds. Lindsey Van also owes a lot to ski jumping her statement on the American team's official website reads: „I started ski jumping at the age of 7.

I have learned so much about myself and what I am capable of through ski jumping. I love jumping, and that has always kept my interest. It wasn't always easy, but the hard parts made me appreciate the best parts even more.”

Never give up The main goal of Fly Girls is to raise a group of female ski jumpers, who would be the strenght of the first national team.

The current achievements are supposed to form the initial base. „The success of the women's team has a lot to do with good timing” says Lussi. Americans believe that, thanks to the program, they will be able to double or even beat their current records. „I think this program is really important for young girls.

In other sports like soccer that's really easy to develop because there's so many kids doing it but in ski jumping not so many people. In order to be successful in this sport you have to get kids on the young age, involve them to be excited about the sport. Hopefully this program will be helpful.” says Hendrickson.

The program is a kind of bridge connecting particular girls to different stages of development – from the Continental Cup to the World Cup to the Olympic Games. The program was started by Alan Alborn a former ski jumper, now the coach and manager of the Visa Women's Ski Jumping Team, which drafts ten ski jumpers every year. The principles followed by the young ski jumpers are: always train hard, believe in yourself, defeat weakness, love what you do and never give up.

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The lucky ones Fly Girls Program is another milestone in the development of women's ski jumping. It is a one-of-a- kind project.

Among the countries where this sport is practiced only in the USA a long-term development program for the girls has been implemented.

Although in Poland the program Lotos Looking for the future masters, is blossoming, the lion's share of the children who take part in it are boys. In the Alpine countries, the Alpen Cup has been taking place for 24 years. Nevertheless, the women's section was introduced only in the season 2001/2002, and in the years 2004-2012 it was suspended.

In the USA it wasn't always easy. Van recalls: „When I started ski jumping I was one of the only girls and I trained mostly with boys. There weren't many competitions that had a women's class, so I competed with the boys.” The problem with the appreciation of women applies also to other typicaly masculine sports. „The biggest obstacle for girls who jump would have to be the constant battle of proving that girls can jump just as far as boys. In this day and age, you would think that people see the capabilities of women, and they should not be surprised that we are actually able to jump from the same hills as the guys, but time and time again onlookers shake their heads in disbelief when they see girls heading up to jump big hills.” notes Nina Lussi.

The most important thing is to follow your own path, and try to improve every day. Sarah Hendrickson, the most titled American female ski – jumper – the winner of the 2011/2012 World Cup, and the gold medalist of the 2013 world championships in Val di Fiemme,, gives advice to the ski jumping girls: „I just tell them: work hard. If you dream to go for the Olympics you just have to work hard every day, enjoy what you are

doing, always have fun. If you aren't having fun you can not be successful. That what is important at the end of the day.”

Nina Lussi agrees with her, noticing other important aspects of belonging to a group of ski jumpers: „I would make sure the younger athletes realize how incredibly fortunate they are to even be a part of the ski jumping community. These people are my best friends and family no matter their nationality.

Having that bond with such a great group of individuals will stay with you for the rest of your life.”

Supporting young talents Fly Girls Program is run as a non-profit organization, and over sixty percent of the annual budget are individual donations and funds raised. Until the beginning of the year 2016, the amount of money raised from the Women's Ski Jumping USA program is to grow to sixty thousand dollars. A part of it is to cover half of the cost of a five-day training camp for the beginning girls. This is good news for those girls who have already been included in the program, but also for those who just want to begin their adventure with skis.

Sarah Hendrickson is very pleased with the progress in the development of women's ski jumping, and hopes, that the Fly Girls Program will help find her worthy successors. „I love seeing young girls and remembering what it was like at age of eleven or twelve having so much fun ski jumping. It's absolutely amazing to share the passion of the sport with them because I think they've seen how much I've enjoyed it. I want them to have the same experience that I have.”

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nr 01 | december 2014