2018 Winter Olympics: Ski Jumping Guide and Preview for PyeongChang

With the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea fast approaching, here’s everything you need to know about ski jumping.

With the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea fast approaching, here’s everything you need to know about ski jumping.

There are four events, meaning there will be four sets of medals — men's individual normal hill, men's individual large hill, men's team large hill and women's individual normal hill.

Ski jumping takes place on six days of the games. The fun will begin Thursday, Feb. 8 with the men's individual normal hill event and will conclude Monday, Feb. 19 with the men's team large hill event. 

The women's individual normal hill event will be Monday, Feb. 12. 

The Olympics begin Thursday, Feb. 8 and conclude Sunday, Feb. 25.

Check out the full ski jumping schedule here. 

In December, Sports Illustrated published a Rookie's Guide to Ski Jumping with information about the background, selection process, rules and format of the sport. Though it sounds simple, it's a detailed event that is mesmerizing to watch: Competitors jump as far as they can from the launching zone to make a stable landing.

Be sure to catch up on all the details of the sport to impress your friends and coworkers throughout the games.

A Rookie's Guide to Ski Jumping at the 2018 Winter Olympics

You can learn about how the women's individual normal hill event was first competed in the 2014 games or the different terminology for the slopes used for competing. 

One of the best parts of the guide is that it explains the different events, but more importantly it breakdowns the detailed scoring process. While it can be hard to keep understand what is happening, this will help you appreciate the intricacies of the sport even more. Plus you can learn how techniques have changed the way ski jumping is competed and just how important a guy named Jan Boklov really is. 

In the Jan. 29–Feb. 5 Olympic Preview issue of Sports Illustrated’s magazine, our expert Brian Cazeneuve gave his medal predictions. Here are his picks for figure skating:

MEN

Normal hill

• Kamil Stoch, Poland
• Stefan Kraft, Austria
• Daniel-André Tande, Norway

Stoch won both the normal and large hill events in Sochi.

Large hill

• Richard Freitag, Germany
• Kamil Stoch, Poland
• Andreas Wellinger, Germany

Watch for Japan’s eight-time Olympian Noriaki Kasai, 45.

Team

• Germany
• Poland
• Norway

The U.S. has a single medal (Anders Haugen’s bronze in 1924) in the sport.

WOMEN

Normal hill

• Maren Lundby, Norway
• Katharina Althaus, Germany
• Sara Takanashi, Japan

Takanashi entered Sochi with 15 of 18 wins, but came in fourth.

Check out the rest of Brian’s medal predictions for all 102 events in the magazine.