Ski jumping is a winter sport in which athletes compete on distance and style in a jump from a ski jumping hill. The sport has traditionally focused on a combination of style and distance, and it was therefore early seen as unimportant in many milieus to have the longest jump. The International Ski Federation (Fédération Internationale de Ski; FIS) has opposed the increase in hill sizes, and do not recognize any world records. Since 1936, when the first jump beyond 100 metres (330 ft) was made, all world records in the sport have been made in the discipline of ski flying, an offshoot of ski jumping using larger hills where distance is explicitly emphasised. As of March 2017, the longest jump ever recorded in any official competition is 253.5 m, set by Stefan Kraft at Vikersundbakken in Vikersund, Norway. As of March 2024, the women's world record stands at 230.5 m, set by Silje Opseth also in Vikersund. On 23–24 April 2024, Ryōyū Kobayashi made four successful attempts to unofficially break the world record on a temporary ski flying hill at Hlíðarfjall in Akureyri, Iceland. The purpose-built hill was constructed by Red Bull for promotional purposes. On the first day, Kobayashi jumped 256 m. The following day he improved it to 259 m, 282 m, and finally 291 m.

History

Ski jumping originated in Norway, and has been practiced since time immemorial, using handmade temporary hills. The first record is credited to Olaf Rye, a Norwegian-Danish soldier, who set up a show spectated by his fellow soldiers in 1808, on an improvised hill of handmade piled snow, reaching 9.4 metres (15 alen) in Eidsberg, Norway. This artificial small hill was built at Lekum gård (farm), a few hundred metres away from Eidsberg church. Sondre Norheim, credited as the 'father' of modern skiing, made the second official record at 19.5 m in 1868. Tim Ashburn says in his book The History of Ski Jumping that Norheim's longest jump on the circular track in Haugli ground in 1868 should have been measured at 9.4 metres alen but that newspapers in Christiania reported that the length "was a little exaggerated", so the official record is everywhere written as 19.5 m. The sport quickly spread to Finland, the United States and Canada, where some of the subsequent records were set. Early jumping competitions were only scored by style, and it was seen as disruptive to attempt to jump further. Not until 1901 was a scoring system for distance introduced. With the construction of Bloudkova Velikanka in Planica, Yugoslavia, in 1934, the separate discipline of ski flying was introduced, which is essentially an 'extreme' version of ski jumping. With one exception, all of the world records for distance have been set on five of the world's six ski flying hills, of which five remain in use. In 1936, Josef "Sepp" Bradl was the first to surpass 100 m, landing a jump of 101.5 m. The FIS was long opposed to ski flying as a whole, and it has never been included in the Olympic or Nordic World Ski Championships. However, since 1972, the FIS Ski Flying World Championships has been a mainstay event, and ski flying event are also part of the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup calendar. The first to officially reach 200 m was Toni Nieminen in 1994, by landing a jump of 203 m; at the time, ski jumpers did not receive distance points for the part of the jumps exceeding 191 metres. The distance of a ski jump is measured from the end of the 'table' (the very tip of the 'inrun' ramp) to halfway between the athletes' feet when they touch ground. To qualify, the jump must be made in a sanctioned competition, or official trial or qualification runs for these, with a system to control the actual length. To win a competition, an athlete needs both distance and style, the latter of which is achieved by attaining a proper Telemark landing; therefore jumpers are not motivated to jump as far as possible, only as far necessary to attain a good landing. Jumps are invalid if the jumper falls, defined as touching the ground with his hands or body before reaching the fall line. However, if an athlete touches the snow with any part of their body after landing, and receives style points greater than 14 from at least three judges, the jump is valid and counts as an official world record. When ski flying began in the 1930s, jumps were recorded in a traditional Scandinavian measure of length, the Norwegian alen (1 alen (Norway) = 0.6275 m). Some older United States and Canadian records were recorded in feet. Now, jump length is measured by the meter. Today, camera technology capably makes the measurements. Before, spectators were stationed downhill, meter by meter, and the raised hand of the nearest observer marked the jumper's landing.

Men

Official world records

Progress of all valid world records by fully standing on both feet, although International Ski Federation doesn't recognize them. Also distances set by test and trial jumpers during competition rounds are deemed official.

Invalid world record distances

Not counting if touching the ground, falling before reaching the outrun line or landing during non-competition training rounds.

Falsely claimed world records

Those jumps were never actually world record distances, false claimed by some stats and media:

Number of all 109 official world records by hills

Women

Official world records

Invalid world record distances

Not counting if touching the ground, falling before reaching the outrun line or landing during non-competition training rounds.

Summer world records

Plastic matting for ski jumping was invented by German athlete Hans Renner. The first ski jumping tests on plastic without any audience were made on 31 October 1954 at Regenbergschanze in Zella-Mehlis, East Germany. At the Wadeberg Jugendschanze K40 in Oberhof, East Germany, which was built just next to the old Thuringia ski jump (). Werner Lesser was the first to set a summer WR of 41 m on 21 November 1954.

Valid

Invalid

All jumps over 250 metres

As of 24 March 2019

Most jumps over 250 metres

As of 24 March 2019, including invalid jumps:

All female jumps over 200 metres

As of 17 March 2024

Most female jumps over 200 metres

As of 17 March 2024, including test jump:

Note