In order to promote equality in ski jumping and a possible ski flying World Cup for women, sports director Horst Hüttel from the German Ski Association is calling for more practical experience. “One approach would be to increase the number of competitions on large hills. Then the women will learn more and more how to deal with their forces,” said Hüttel to the news portal “t-online.de”.
While men often jump on large hills during their World Cup season, this is rarely the case for women. Last year, the best 15 athletes in the Raw Air rankings were able to compete in ski flying for the first time in Vikersund, Norway. “The premiere in Vikersund worked well. It’s a shame that it wasn’t continued after the one-day event,” said Hüttel. This year, 20 athletes are allowed to ski fly at the end of March. A “first step,” as the 55-year-old emphasized.
At the same time, the sports director also sees a performance gap among women. “I don’t think that the fiftieth athlete is currently able to fly skis well. You have to assess this realistically because of the responsibility towards the athletes,” said Hüttel. It would therefore be conceivable for him to have specially tailored regulations that would reduce the women’s ski flying World Cup field to 15 or 20 athletes.
