Normal Hill, Individual, Women

Women’s ski-jumping finally found its place on the Olympic program, albeit with just one event on the normal hill. Japan’s Sara Takanashi was considered the favorite, but after the first round she was only ranked third with a jump of 100.0 m. The surprise leader was German Carina Vogt with the longest jump of 103.0 m followed by France’s Coline Mattel. Even though she was second in the season’s World Cup standings, the 22-year-old German had never won a World Cup event, but nine podiums indicated her ability.

Going in reverse order, Austrian Daniela Iraschko-Stolz, who was fifth after the first round with a jump of 98.5 m, landed a wind-assisted jump of 104.5 m, the longest of the competition, taking the lead with just four jumpers remaining. The next jumper – Italian Evelyn Insam – failed to surpass her score as did Takanashi, who missed the podium. Her second jump of 98.5 m left her in fourth place, after 19 consecutive World Cup podiums prior to the Games and 10 wins in 13 events this season.

Mattel, ranked second after the first round, managed only 97.5 m, but her style points gave her a combined score of 245.2 points to win the bronze medal. Carina Vogt, jumping last, could only equal Mattel’s distance, but her combined score of 247.4 was just enough to win the gold medal and to become the first ever women’s Olympic champion in ski jumping. Although Vogt’s second jump was 7.0 m short of the Austrian’s, superior style marks, her telemark landing and wind compensation points gave her the victory, beating Iraschko-Stolz by 1.2 points, with bronze medalist Mattel only point further back.

Besides a disappointed Takanashi, reigning American world champion Sarah Hendrickson also fell far short of her best performance finishing only 21st after returning from a knee injury.