Poland's Malysz says ski jumping has been a lottery
Classified Polnews
Poland's champion ski jumper Adam Malysz says that jumping conditions in the World Cup events have been terrible and that the results in all but two events have been a lottery. And the terrible conditions this weekend yielded lottery winners and a seriously injured jumper.
Poland
According to Malysz, the jumping conditions in Europe have been plagued by warm weather, no snow and bad wind conditions. At only two events were the results reflective of the actual talents of the jumpers.
The conditions on Saturday were bad with shifting winds. Malysz did not have a long jump but experts said what he did was absolutely impressive. With bad conditions for his jump, he stretched the distance covered by applying every technique possible. His low position in the standings that were the result of bad wind conditions did not show his high class.
Even though the conditions were bad, the contestants were not against going forward with the competition even after the fall by Jan Mazocha. There were ten jumpers waiting to make their second and final jump for the day. After the competition was terminated by the officials, they tried to convince the officials to let the competition go forward.
The ten jumpers that wanted to go forward were those who had the better results in the first round. And because of the wind conditions, some of those who were among the ten were people who were there only because they had good wind conditions or a lucky day.
Bad conditions are expected by jumpers. And falling is part of the sport, regardless of the conditions.
And according to experts, jumpers train on how to fall. As part of their training, they practice recovery procedures in wind tunnels and learn what to do if one cannot recover.
Malysz said that had the fallen jumper moved his hands in front of him rather than the way he did, he would have probably made himself roll so that he would have landed on his back. See Controversy Erupts Over Polish Ski Jump Fall
