I tell you what, my wife and I were honeymooning in Munich many years ago. On New Years Day we hit up a local beerhall and all that was on was ski jumping. After many Weisse beers and fresh mammoth pretzels, we sat there mesmerized. Since then, if I can catch it, especially during the Olympics, I stay glued.
Anticipation may be the key. Disaster can strike at any moment and it's not clear how good the jump will be until the very end. Not nearly as dull as some sports like golf where much of the activity has no bearing on the score. I'll stop now before I go off topic and irritate some others by insulting favorite sports....
Many people give me the strange look when I say that I'm a fan of this sport. Maybe because it's not so popular in my country.
It's not very popular over here either but other sports that to me sea even less interesting are. No accounting for tastes I guess. There is also an element of call it grandeur perhaps in ski jumping that many other sports don't have.
To me its pretty extreme. A human basically flying through the air catapulted off of a huge slide. How on earth is that not interesting?
I like to watch Ski Sunday on BBC2 every year, though it has to be said last season's weren't up to much. New one starts this weekend, so here's hoping for some excitement
Undoubtedly the most famous ski jumping incident to American audiences was the "agony of defeat" clip used in the opener of ABC's Wide World of Sports (that predates ESPN for you young'uns) <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jKEDD1i4oGk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
First time I saw his fall I thought he died. He was from Yugoslavia and was popular amongst us Ski Jumping fans.
used to watch Wide World of Sports and the intro song had a guy taking a horrible crash on a ski jump...it's a 'well known'' ski jump scene.....I used to watch all that ski stuff because there weren't many channels back then...I enjoy watching the jumping--they really soar!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2AZH4FeGsc here's the 31 second intro with the 'famous' crash at 14 second mark
