1930s–1940s Breaking the 100 metre barrier and the birth of ski flying '' in
Planica, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (pictured in 1963) The origins of ski flying can be traced directly to 15 March 1936 in
Planica, Slovenia (then a part of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia), when 18-year-old Austrian
Josef "Sepp" Bradl became the first man in history to land a ski jump of over . His world record jump of was set at
Bloudkova velikanka ("Bloudek giant"), a new hill designed and completed in 1934 by engineers
Stanko Bloudek and Ivan Rožman, together with Joso Gorec. A year earlier,
Olav Ulland had crossed the 100 m barrier in
Ponte di Legno, Italy, but touched the snow with his hands, which rendered his jump – and world record – unofficial. With jumps now in the triple digits, Bloudek enthused: "That was no longer
ski jumping. That was ski flying!" It was with these words that ski flying took on a life of its own. Such was the awe and disbelief at these massive jumps, the units of measurement were trivialised by the media, who suggested that the metre used in Yugoslavia was shorter than elsewhere in Europe. Bradl later spoke fondly of the jump which made him an icon in the sport: The air pushed violently against my chest; I leaned right into it and let it carry me. I had only one wish: to fly as far as possible! ... [After landing the jump], many thousands of curious eyes looked up at the judges' tower. I could hardly believe it when an additional "1" popped up on the scoreboard!
Dispute between the FIS and Planica was the first ski jumper to land a jump of more than In the early 1930s, prior to the construction of
Bloudkova velikanka, the
FIS had deemed ski jumping hills with a
K-point (German:
Konstruktionspunkt) of to be the absolute largest permissible. Athletes who chose to compete on hills with a K-point of more than were outright denied a licence to jump, After a period of wrangling and increasing public interest in the novelty of this new 'extreme' form of ski jumping, the FIS relented. In 1938, a decision was made at the fifteenth International Ski Congress in
Helsinki, Finland, to allow for "experimental" hill design, thereby officially recognising ski flying as a sanctioned discipline. Despite this reluctant recognition, the FIS still frowned upon the practice of aiming predominantly for long distances over style, and presently refuses to publish lists of world records in an official capacity. Furthermore, the rules for ski flying would not be fully established until after
World War II. This group would go on to consult with the FIS in all aspects of ski flying, celebrating their 50th anniversary in 2012. In 1953, Kulm hosted the first International Ski Flying Week, which would be the premier event in ski flying until 1972. Planica reclaimed the world record in 1969 with a new hill named
Velikanka bratov Gorišek ("Giant by brothers Gorišek"). This was the brainchild of Slovenian brothers
Janez and
Vlado Gorišek, both engineers, who opted to design a new hill with a K-point of instead of enlarging the adjacent
Bloudkova velikanka, which was showing signs of deterioration.
Bloudkova velikanka was subsequently recategorised as a ski jumping hill. In the opening event at
Velikanka bratov Gorišek, five world records were set: Wirkola and
Jiří Raška traded it amongst themselves four times, until
Manfred Wolf ended their run with a jump of . The 1960s remains the decade with the highest amount of world records since the advent of ski flying, with seventeen in total set on the hills in Oberstdorf, Planica, Kulm, and Vikersund. By contrast the 1950s had the fewest with five, all set in Oberstdorf.
1970s Planica versus Oberstdorf , 1970 The world record stayed in Planica for four years, during which the K-point at
Velikanka bratov Gorišek was upgraded to 165 m in time for the
inaugural Ski Flying World Championships in 1972, which eventually superseded International Ski Flying Week. This new event was sanctioned a year earlier by the FIS at their 28th International Ski Congress in
Opatija, Croatia (then a part of Yugoslavia). Much like in 1938 when the discipline received official recognition from the FIS, another milestone had been reached as ski flying was now granted its own world championship–level event on par with the
Nordic World Ski Championships in ski jumping, having spent almost four decades as a mere 'special attraction' alongside its older and more prestigious sibling. He would finish the event with a silver medal, behind winner
Hans-Georg Aschenbach. A year later in Planica, in front of a 50,000-strong crowd, Steiner finally achieved the world record he had been striving for, landing a jump of 169 m to equal that of Wossipiwo in 1973. Spectators were astonished and the event organisers momentarily bewildered, as Steiner had landed well beyond the markers used to indicate distance alongside the hill, which only went as far as the existing K-point of 165 m. For the first time since their respective hills had been built, the competition was levelled between Oberstdorf and Planica. On the next day of the event in the latter, Steiner tried to go even further: he landed at but fell down on what was almost flat ground, although this time he managed to walk away – albeit on unsteady legs – with only cuts to his face. As early as 1941,
The New York Times wrote: The jumper's safety depends upon his making contact with the earth or snow at a sharp tangent, thus dissipating the terrific impact shock. Were a jumper to land on a flat expanse he would shatter every bone in his body. Such a fall would be comparable to
leaping out of a seven-story building. In Herzog's documentary, Steiner is shown to reflect with trepidation in Oberstdorf: Ski flying has reached the point where it's beginning to present real dangers. We've just about reached the limit, I believe, as far as speed is concerned. ... Maybe I'd prefer to turn back [and] go back to flying off 150- or 130-metre hills, but it's the thrill of flying so far that nevertheless gives me a kick. "They let me jump too far four times. That shouldn't happen. It's scandalous of those Yugoslav judges up there who are responsible." Three years later, Planica drew level once again when
Klaus Ostwald equalled the world record. Elsewhere, in the Western Hemisphere, the United States opened its own ski flying venue in 1970:
Copper Peak in
Ironwood, Michigan, had a K-point of 145 m, therefore not designed for world record distances from the outset. As of 2025 it remains the only ski flying hill to have been built outside of Europe. At the
1983 Ski Flying World Championships,
Pavel Ploc brought the world record back to Harrachov, which had since been upgraded to K180, by jumping ; this remains the last time a world record was set there. while
Steinar Bråten and
Jens Weißflog also crashed. Ploc crashed in
1985 and Iztok Melin in
1989. Over the next few years, the one-upmanship continued as the world record was again traded between Planica and Oberstdorf. In
1984,
Matti Nykänen jumped twice on the same day in Oberstdorf. By improving this to the next day, Nykänen became the first athlete since
Reidar Andersen in 1935 to set three world records in the space of 24 hours. It would be the end of an era as this was the last time a world record was set in Oberstdorf; altogether 21 were set there. Former ski jumper
Jeff Hastings, co-commentating, called him "the best 'aviator' out there today; he knows how to fly." All of this was overshadowed by a series of horrific accidents which took place earlier. In treacherous
crosswind conditions,
Masahiro Akimoto lost control moments after takeoff, falling suddenly from a height of onto his back. He suffered a fractured ankle in addition to chest and shoulder injuries. A few minutes later,
Rolf Åge Berg frighteningly lost control at the same height, at an estimated takeoff speed of , but was able to land safely on both skis. Immediately afterwards,
Ulf Findeisen fell out of the air on his jump, crashing down face-first from 9 m and flipping head over heels repeatedly along the slope, only coming to a stop several seconds later. Trautwig likened Findeisen to "a ragdoll" after the fall. Hastings said: "I'm feeling a little sick to my stomach, Al. I can't believe this. I've never seen ski flying like this. So many falls." Findeisen was barely conscious and had to be stretchered away, later going into
cardiac arrest but surviving. At this point, Trautwig began calling into question the nature of the sport: "Jeff, we talk about the fear and why the ski flyers are scared... I'm really starting to ask, why we're here and why they're doing it."
Ernst Vettori, who was awaiting his own jump, withdrew from the event after witnessing the falls. Ski flying endured a static era beginning in
1987, when
Piotr Fijas set a world record of in Planica. With height over the hills (athletes were reaching in Planica) and takeoff speeds (Pavel Ploc reached in Harrachov in 1983) at an all-time high, as well as distances approaching , the FIS took a stance against record-hunting for safety reasons. From Felder's world record in 1986 onwards, the FIS implemented a rule in which distance points would not be awarded beyond 191 m; the jump would still count, but no points further than that could be achieved. Per this rule, Fijas' jump was officially scaled down to 191 m by the FIS, but the KOP group (led by the organisers in Kulm, Oberstdorf and Planica) independently recorded the actual figure. Neither Kulm nor Planica would hold a ski flying event for several years, leaving Oberstdorf and Vikersund to host the Ski Flying World Championships in
1988 and
1990, respectively.
1990s New safety measures in
Harrachov, 2011. The modern curvature of the reprofiled slope can be seen on the flying hill (top), which used to be a much steeper drop. The dangers of ski flying were still on full display at the
1992 Ski Flying World Championships in Harrachov, where
Andreas Goldberger suffered a similar crash to the ones which occurred in Kulm in 1986. On the first day of the event, a few seconds into his second jump, dangerous wind conditions forced Goldberger to lose control at a height of around 9 m and a speed of more than , sending him plummeting face-first onto the hill below. He was taken by helicopter to a hospital, having sustained a broken arm and collarbone, and a concussion.
František Jež also crashed, but was able to walk away with some help. The second and final day of the event was stopped due to worsened weather, culminating in a high-speed fall by
Christof Duffner just as he landed a world record-equalling jump of 194 m, albeit rendered
invalid because of the fall. With the event cancelled, Goldberger's efforts from earlier were enough to earn him a silver medal behind eventual winner
Noriaki Kasai of Japan, who became the first non-European Ski Flying World Champion. Goldberger was able to return to top-level competition within less than a year. Protective wind nets by the side of the hill were installed in Harrachov for
1996 to minimise the effects of crosswind, along with major reprofiling of the slope to comply with FIS safety regulations. This reprofiling – particularly at the hill's highest point, known as the knoll – was critical in reducing the fearsome height reached by athletes after takeoff, as high as in 1980. Speaking about his experience at the 1983 Ski Flying World Championships in Harrachov, Mike Holland said: Climbing over the knoll, I thought 'this is
so damned high, I shouldn't be this high.' Since I wasn't ready for such height and speed, I threw out my arms at the end of the flight and let myself down short of the world record. However, this came largely at the expense of stability and balance, akin to 'walking a tightrope' in mid-air and leaving athletes at the mercy of the elements. Akimoto, Findeisen, Berg and Goldberger's accidents were all caused by unpredictable gusts of wind that made them lose control at the highest and fastest stage of their jumps, exacerbated by an outdated technique ill-suited to the new extremes of ski flying, as well as the prevalence of older hills featuring very steep slopes. – which retained some features of the parallel style – to a much wider one at the end of the decade. Some athletes preferred to cross the back of the skis to exaggerate the "V" angle, while others leaned even more forward so that their body lay almost flat between the skis; both variations remain in use. The V-style is still not immune to failure if the air pressure under one ski is lost, but the results are much less catastrophic than with the parallel style; the latter had resulted in more head-first landings, whereas the V-style sees somewhat 'safer' landings on the back or shoulders. According to Mike Holland, "If you were hit by a gust of wind in the air, you would just flip over mid-flight", in reference to the parallel style.
Breaking the 200 metre barrier using a wide
V-style with skis almost crossed at the back, 2012 In 1994, ski flying returned to a newly independent Slovenia, where the hill in Planica had been reprofiled with the aim of allowing for jumps of more than 200 m. The FIS was strongly against this and initially threatened to cancel the event on the grounds that its regulations on hill design had been violated. Negotiations between the organisers in Planica and the FIS managed to defuse the situation, allowing that year's
Ski Flying World Championships to take place. Before the event,
Espen Bredesen said: "Of course I want to be the first [to reach 200 m], but I think that or are also possible." The restrictive rule concerning jumps beyond 191 m, in place since 1986, was subsequently abolished by the FIS. In 2014, Nieminen spoke about the jump that cemented his name in the history books: It was the kind of jump in which, even when arriving [at the bottom of the hill] in the landing position and not knowing at all what lies ahead, I remember that my legs were trembling. That's how terrified I was. ... Overcoming your own fears is the best feeling. The nature of the sport is that one has to challenge themselves. That's why this jump has remained a highlight of my career.
Planica dominates using a narrower "V" angle and skis uncrossed, 2012 Beginning with Fijas's world record in 1987, Planica enjoyed a very long period of exclusivity. Much like in the 1930s and 1940s, no other hills would come close to reclaiming the accolade for 24 years, despite nearly all receiving K-point upgrades to 185 m. Only Copper Peak remained unchanged at K145, staging its last event to date in 1994 with a hill record of shared between
Werner Schuster and Mathias Wallner. Since then, the hill has served as a tourist attraction in which sightseers are able to access the top of the inrun via an elevator. In 2013, following almost two decades of disuse as a sporting venue, it was announced that the hill at Copper Peak would be renovated as the world's largest ski jumping hill, additionally capable of staging summer events. With seven years between Fijas and Höllwarth's world records, it was the longest drought of unbroken records since that of Tauno Luiro from 1951 was broken by Jože Šlibar in 1961.
2000s In
2000, the world record in Planica was improved by , with jumps of by
Thomas Hörl The latter stood for three years until being equalled by
Adam Małysz in
2003, but his achievement was only temporary. On the same day, and in a span of the next four,
Matti Hautamäki set a
hat-trick of world records of , and , much like Matti Nykänen had done in 1984. When interviewed after the event, Hautamäki said that "The longer one stays in the air, the more fun it is."
Veli-Matti Lindström also jumped during a trial round but touched the snow upon landing. Despite improvements in safety since the 1990s, Planica still saw several violent accidents occur in consecutive years:
Valery Kobelev (1999),
Robert Kranjec (2001), and
Tomasz Pochwała (2002) all crashed at the top of the knoll due to sudden losses of ski pressure. Before the
2004 Ski Flying World Championships, the hill was renamed to
Letalnica bratov Gorišek ("Flying hill by brothers Gorišek"). In
2005, Planica continued its dominance of ski flying. In the opening training round,
Andreas Widhölzl crashed after a jump of . In the finale, the world record was officially shattered four times on the same day when Tommy Ingebrigtsen,
Bjørn Einar Romøren, and Matti Hautamäki all traded records of 231 m, 234.5 m, and respectively, with Romøren emerging victorious with a jump of to claim the final figure. Commentating for Finnish broadcaster
MTV3, former world record holder Toni Nieminen remarked forebodingly after Romøren's jump that "the landing area is now practically completely flat ground." Some minutes following Romøren's jump,
Janne Ahonen went for broke when he caught a massive
thermal updraft and stretched out a jump of , only to fall from a dangerous height and slam down hard onto near-flat ground. MTV3 commentator Jani Uotila called it "A horrendous jump! This is all getting too dangerous now!", while co-commentator Nieminen explained that "When one comes down on flat ground, the impact is really hard." Ahonen was momentarily knocked out and his helmet had cracked, but he sustained no injuries. He was stretchered away and able to wave to the crowd, and returned later in the event to step onto the podium for winning his second consecutive World Cup title. Ahonen's 240 m jump became part of ski flying legend when, in his 2009 autobiography
Kuningaskotka, he revealed that he performed the feat while
hung over from partying with team-mate
Risto Jussilainen the previous night. After the crash, he refused treatment at Planica's medical facilities out of fear that his blood tests would show he was intoxicated. In 2013, Ahonen talked about the consequences of not reining in the jump prematurely in the way he did: In the initial flight phase I thought, "Oh damn, now we're going far." Half way down the slope I got a warm feeling that, "Yes, now it's a world record. This is certain to be a new world record." Then as I flew further I realised, "Oh no, this is not going to end well. This is really not going to end well. I'm going to break my legs at the least." ... In reality I came down at , but there was no more distance measuring equipment there. Experts have calculated that had I not brought down my jump, it would've flown at least .
2010s Major hill upgrades begin, Vikersund re-emerges was the first to land a jump of In the aftermath of the Planica event and following numerous near-flat ground landings, it became clear that ski flying had once again outgrown an older hill and needed enlarging in the years to come. In 2005, almost immediately after the conclusion of the World Cup season, talks were under way to upgrade the hill in Vikersund. This became a reality in mid-2010, when the FIS announced major rule changes at the 47th International Ski Congress in
Antalya, Turkey, to allow for ski flying hills to be constructed to their largest sizes yet. and the first one equipped for
floodlit night events. Janez Gorišek, known for his expertise in ski flying hill design, was the leader of this project. Anticipating a renewed world record rivalry, organisers in Vikersund welcomed the healthy competition with Planica. The new facility was given a rousing introduction at its opening event in
2011, when
Johan Remen Evensen jumped and , returning the world record to Vikersund for the first time since 1967. This served as a preparation event for the
2012 Ski Flying World Championships, which went on to draw a crowd of 60,000.
Breaking the 250 metre barrier Another K-point modification in Vikersund (this time to 200 m) resulted in the coveted 250 m barrier being reached in
2015, with
Peter Prevc landing a clean jump right on the mark to claim another historic milestone in the sport. Prevc's triumph was short-lived when
Anders Fannemel broke this figure only a day later, landing a jump of . At the same event, prior to Fannemel's jump,
Dmitry Vassiliev crashed hard onto near-flat ground at in a similar way to Janne Ahonen in Planica a decade earlier; this gave Vassiliev unofficially the furthest distance ever reached in ski flying until 2025.
Further hill upgrades Between 2015 and
2017, upgrades from K185 to K200 were also completed in Kulm, Planica, and Oberstdorf. In
2018, the
hill sizes on all active flying hills were upgraded to 235–240 m, making them fully equipped for jumps exceeding those distances (previous hill records were broken at each opening event), as well as having improved facilities for athletes and spectators. Harrachov remains the only hill, at K185, to have not been upgraded in any major way since the 1990s. Although the new hills are much larger than ever before, they generally feature longer and less steeply angled slopes. Today, Kulm and Planica remain extremely steep in the flight phase; Oberstdorf and Vikersund, by comparison, have longer slopes and do not enable as much height over the knoll. At the end of the 2015 World Cup season, following Prevc and Fannemel's world records, then-FIS race director Walter Hofer stated that the limit had been reached on the newest hills, and that no further expansion to their size was expected in the near future. He also noted in 2011 that the FIS rules on hill sizes would likely remain unchanged for another decade. In 2017,
Robert Johansson landed an official world record of 252 m in Vikersund, which was broken only half an hour later by
Stefan Kraft with a jump of , only half a metre short of Dmitry Vassiliev's unofficial distance from 2015. The Vikersund event was staged as the finale of the
inaugural Raw Air tournament, which was won by Kraft. He said of his world record: I knew the ramp in Vikersund can jump pretty darn far. It was an incredible flight and it was important that I was able to do it. During the flight, I thought "it's now or never." slow-motion replay confirmed that his landing was valid with only millimetres to spare. A week later, Planica caught up to Vikersund with a plethora of more personal bests, and three athletes – including Kraft, twice – landing jumps of, or beyond, 250 m.
Kamil Stoch would set a hill record of 251.5 m, with the season finale competition drawing an attendance of 16,500. In 2018, in Planica,
Gregor Schlierenzauer equalled the world record of 253.5 m but touched the snow with his hands upon landing.
2020s In 2024,
Red Bull organised a two-day event on a specially constructed hill in
Hlíðarfjall, Iceland, in which
Ryōyū Kobayashi made four jumps to unofficially eclipse the world record: , , , and finally . In
2025,
Domen Prevc set a new official world record in Planica, landing a jump of . This eight-year gap between world records was the longest since Piotr Fijas' record in 1987 was broken by Martin Höllwarth in 1994. ==Differences from ski jumping==