Ski Jumping at the 2002 Winter Olympics

The 2002 ski jumping events were conducted at Utah Olympic Park, north of Park City and east of Salt Lake City, which was also specifically constructed for the Winter Olympics, although it was built in the early 1990s, preparing for the bid for the 1998 Olympic Winter Games, which went to Nagano. Utah Olympic Park also hosted the sliding events in 2002, bobsled, luge, and skeleton. The normal hill in 2002 had a K-point of 90.0 metres while the large hill’s K-point was at 120.0 metres. There was no change in the program since the 1994 Winter Olympics, with three events – individual normal hill, individual large hill, and team large hill. As in 1998, in the individual events, only the top 30 jumpers in the first round advanced to the second round. But further, there was a one jump qualifying round added to the 2002 individual jumping events. Based on World Cup points, 12 jumpers were seeded into the final rounds, although they could take the qualifying round jump as a practice effort. The other jumpers competed for 38 spots in the final round, for a final field of 50.

The competitions were surprising. During the 2001-02 ski jumping, Germany’s Sven Hannawald had become the first jumper ever to win all four meets in the Four Hills Tournament. But both individual events in Salt Lake City were huge upsets, and they were both won by the unheralded Swiss jumper Simon Ammann. Hannawald won a gold in the team event but individually won only a silver on the normal hill