This winter even the best were affected: are the women jumping too poorly?

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They take off, fly, land and fall. Not all, not by a long shot – but too many. “If you don’t train jumps, it becomes difficult,” says Felix Neureuther. The former slalom star from Germany took a closer look at the Crash Festival in Cortina (Italy) four weeks ago. “You have to be able to jump. I couldn’t do it,” he says. Neureuther is convinced that jumps need much more training, especially in women’s sports.

“I completely agree with Felix,” says SRF expert Didier Plaschy. “Jumping is a problem in general – it needs to be promoted more in the ski clubs. Because it’s actually something cool,” says the Valais resident. It is actually surprising that established riders also flew into the net in the speed classic in the Dolomites: Priska Nufer, Michelle Gisin, Federica Brignone, Mikaela Shiffrin and Emma Aicher. Corinne Suter and Joana Hählen were seriously injured after a jump.

A jump? “I don’t see a problem with that”

Jumps are also a hot topic in Crans-Montana USA. There aren’t many, but they certainly have it all. «The goal jump is like a kicker. And then you end up in soft snow. It’s the same every year. “I don’t understand why this jump is even necessary – it’s unnecessary,” Jasmine Flury said after the first practice.

OK boss Marius Robyr countered in the “Tages-Anzeiger”: “I wonder if the women are afraid of this technically difficult process. You also want to offer the audience a spectacle. A jump makes the race more attractive, I don’t see a problem with that.”

The question inevitably arises: can’t women jump? You can’t say this in general terms: there are better and worse jumpers. But Priska Nufer agrees with Neureuther. She says: “Jumps are not trained enough, especially at European Cup level. There they have been increasingly defused during the races in recent years. That’s a shame – especially for young female drivers. They will be surprised when they come to the World Cup and suddenly have to master difficult jumps.”

Swiss-Ski contains jumps

Swiss Alpine boss Hans Flatscher has long recognized the problem. “With women, you often have the feeling that if someone skis well in the giant slalom, she will have no problems on the downhill. It’s not that simple. Jumps and waves in particular need to be trained – problems often arise when they are connected to turns – then the stress becomes great.”

At Swiss-Ski we consciously integrate jumps into training. This is time-consuming and complicated when there is little snow, but it is important. “It’s often about courage: you either have it naturally or you don’t. But you can also adopt it. For example, we do interregional sessions where special elements such as jumps, waves and valleys are trained.”

Jumping is fun

Flatscher does not want to paint things black. Naturally, he is aware that trainers have no interest in drivers getting injured during training. Nevertheless, he encourages them to incorporate jumping elements – that’s what they do.

Flatscher sees another reason for optimism in the various fun parks that have sprung up in many ski areas in recent years. “We used to drive through the forest to jump. Nowadays there are bumps, halfpipes and kickers. And the children and young people like them: jumping is just fun.”

Source : Blick