For the first time ever, the female ski jumpers will be holding their last competitions before the Christmas break alongside the men in Engelberg. Katharina Schmid and Co. want to benefit once again from the increased attention. Because the differences are still big.
Without question, Katharina Schmid had imagined her start to the new season to be different. In Lillehammer, of all places, where she celebrated six of her 15 individual World Cup victories, at the beginning of December she only achieved eighth place on both the normal and large hill. Not enough for the demands of the Beijing Olympic silver medalist. “A bit of a bumpy start“, Schmid also knew.
After her fairytale World Cup in Planica with three gold medals, the 27-year-old from Oberstdorf is one of the favorites to win the overall World Cup. In Engelberg, Switzerland, she can now prove that the early praise is justified. There are two competitions from the Gross-Titlis ski jump on Friday (3:30 p.m. in the Sportschau live ticker) and on Saturday (12:30 p.m. in the Sportschau live ticker) from the large hill, which in turn is the steepest hill in the Ski Jumping World Cup .
Women’s ski jumping continues to lag behind
For the female ski jumpers it is a first in two respects: for the first time, they will be holding their last competitions before the Christmas break parallel to the men in Engelberg. People want to benefit from the significantly higher level of attention that men receive. Because the differences between the two genders are still large in the World Cup.
While the men’s calendar this winter includes 27 competitions at 14 different World Cup locations (excluding the Four Hills Tournament, Ski Flying World Championships and Raw Air Tour), the women only complete 20 competitions at ten World Cup locations. There is also the New Year’s Eve tour and the Raw Air tour.
When is that coming? Four Hills Tournament for the women?
In particular, the ongoing impasse surrounding a Four Hills Tournament for women is causing frustration. This was actually planned for this season, but the Austrian association blocked it, which means that the dream will not come true until next winter at the earliest.
This winter, for the first time, there will be a “half” tour for the women shortly before the turn of the year in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and on New Year’s Day in Oberstdorf. After that, however, we continue with two competitions in Villach instead of Innsbruck and Bischofshofen as with the men.
Schmid: Differentiation from men is “not effective”
This is at least a start; there is no doubt that numerous fans will cheer on the ski jumpers at the two stations in Germany. However, there could also be significantly more if the men’s competitions took place at the same time with around 30,000 spectators each and would automatically attract more attention. To put it bluntly, men and women compete for the attention of the audience.
This is also why Schmid advocates for a much stronger bond. “I don’t think it makes sense to separate women’s ski jumping from men’s ski jumping so much“, she emphasizes on the DSV’s Instagram channel. “It would be good if we had more competitions at the same venues.“
Only five World Cups together this winter
However, the International Ski Federation FIS had other plans. While last year the World Cup opener in Wisla was contested together, this season the men jumped alone in Ruka. The women only got on board in Lillehammer a week later.
In total, women and men will jump together five times this winter: at the World Cups in Lillehammer, Engelberg, Willingen and Lahti and at the end of the season at the Raw Air in Norway. Last season there were seven joint stations including the World Championships.
Prejudices block sustainable development
This is not the only indication that the issue of equality in ski jumping still has a lot of room for improvement. The mere fact that there has only been a World Cup for women since 2011 and that ski jumping for women only became Olympic in Sochi in 2014 shows how long prejudices about physical differences and less exciting competitions have denied women the attention and projection space they need for successful and sustainable development withdrawn from their sport.
25 years ago as “Special attraction” in ski jumping, the women have also been able to achieve success in terms of equality in the recent past. In March of this year, the 15 best jumpers in the World Cup were allowed to ski fly for the first time. And lo and behold: The Slovenian Ema Klinec was only 226 meters away from her world record a little less than 25 meters behind the record set by the Austrian Stefan Kraft.
Other sports are ahead
According to Schmid, joint competitions remain the solution in the fight for “equal ski jumps”. Just as it has long been common practice in biathlon for women and men to hold their races at the same World Cup location, female ski jumpers would also benefit from the significantly increased media attention and more sponsors – especially since the performance gap between the individual nations is increasing has demonstrably aligned with previous years.
Until then, Schmid and Co. will try to let their sporting achievements do the talking. Then the “bumpy start” will quickly become a thing of the past this season.