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50 free Ski Jumping trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Ski jumping is one of the oldest Winter Olympic sports and still one of the strangest to explain: athletes hurl themselves off a ramp at 90 km/h, hold a V for five seconds and are then marked on how gracefully they land. This quiz covers the sport from Sondre Norheim's Telemark and the first Holmenkollen meeting to today's 250-metre ski flying records, taking in the K-point, the five-judge style panel, gate and wind compensation, the BMI rule and why the V-style was mocked before it conquered the world. The legends are all here: Matti Nykänen's three golds in Calgary, Eddie the Eagle and the rule named after him, Simon Ammann's Harry Potter podium, Adam Malysz, Janne Ahonen, Gregor Schlierenzauer, Kamil Stoch, Ryoyu Kobayashi's Grand Slam and Sara Takanashi's record World Cup wins. There are questions on the Four Hills Tournament, Planica and Vikersund, and on the long fight to get women's ski jumping into the Olympics. About a third of the questions are easy for anyone who watches on New Year's Day, a third are medium and the rest will test real Nordic skiing fans. Every answer is checked against reference and biography pages, and each question carries its source.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which country was ski jumping first contested, in the 19th century?
Norway
The recorded origins go back to 1808, when Olaf Rye reached 9.5 metres.
Q 02Ski jumping and which other discipline make up the traditional group of Nordic skiing?
Cross-country
The two are combined in a single event, the Nordic combined, which still has no women's competition.
Q 03The line drawn in the landing area that serves as the target for jumpers is known as what?
The K-point
It is short for construction point; on a large hill it sits at 120 metres and is worth 60 points.
Q 04What is the maximum style score a single judge can award for one jump?
Twenty
Five judges score each jump; the highest and lowest marks are dropped and the middle three added to the distance points.
Q 05How many judges evaluate style at a ski jumping competition?
Five
They sit in a tower beside the expected landing point and look for steady skis, balance, body position and the landing.
Q 06Who is regarded as the father of modern ski jumping, winning the first competition with prizes in 1866?
Sondre Norheim
He later emigrated to the United States and helped develop the sport there.
Q 07The first large ski jumping competition, held in Oslo in 1875, later moved to which famous venue?
Holmenkollen
The Holmenkollen Ski Festival has run since 1892, and the hill has been rebuilt 19 times, most recently between 2008 and 2010.
Q 08Ski jumping has featured at every Winter Olympics since the first Games in 1924, held where?
Chamonix
For its first forty years the Olympic programme had only the large hill; the normal hill was added in 1964 and the team event in 1988.
Q 09The normal hill event was added to the Olympic programme at which Games?
1964
It had appeared at the World Championships two years earlier in Zakopane; since 1992 it has been held on a K-90 hill.
Q 10The first-ever jump over 100 metres was made in 1936 at a hill in which modern country?
Slovenia
Josef Bradl did it, and the same venue saw the first official 200-metre jump when Toni Nieminen landed at 203 in 1994.
Q 11The V-style ski jump, with tips spread apart, was pioneered in the mid-1980s by a jumper from which country?
Sweden
Jan Boklöv was marked down for it at first, but the style added around 10 percent to jump distances and everyone adopted it.
Q 12Jan Boklöv, who popularised the V-style, won the World Cup overall title in which season?
1988-89
Swedish radio listeners voted him the Jerringpriset for the best sporting performance of 1989.
Q 13The lesser-used H-style, with skis spread wide and held parallel, is associated with which jumper?
Domen Prevc
The same Slovenian set the official world record of 254.5 metres at Planica in March 2025.
Q 21Which jumper has won the Four Hills Tournament a record five times?
Janne Ahonen
The Finn, nicknamed King Eagle, is often called the greatest jumper never to win an individual Olympic medal.
Q 22Which Czech jumper shared the 2005-06 Four Hills Tournament with a Finn after a dead heat on points?
Jakub Janda
Unlike World Cup standings, the tournament is decided on the raw competition points from every jump.
Q 23Matti Nykänen won how many gold medals at the Winter Olympics of 1988?
Three
That made the Flying Finn, along with skater Yvonne van Gennip, the most decorated athlete of those Games.
Q 14The landing style jumpers must perform, one foot ahead of the other with knees bent, is named after what?
A Norwegian county
It is the Telemark landing, and failing to execute it costs style points.
Q 15Which year's rules introduced the gate factor and wind factor, which compensate scores for conditions?
2009
Points are subtracted when the start gate is raised and added for a headwind, since a headwind helps and a tailwind hurts.
Q 16Ski jumpers below a minimum body mass index are penalised in what way?
They must use shorter skis
The rule dates from 2004 and was a response to athletes starving themselves for extra flight; critics say short skis are easily offset by low weight.
Q 17The FIS Ski Jumping World Cup has been contested since which season?
1979-80
It runs from November to March with 25 to 30 events across Europe, the United States and Japan.
Q 18The Four Hills Tournament is held at Oberstdorf, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Innsbruck and where else?
Bischofshofen
Two hills are in Germany and two in Austria, and the events straddle New Year's Day.
Q 19The Four Hills Tournament first took place in which season?
1952-53
Its first round is a knockout between 25 pairs of jumpers, unlike other World Cup events, and a women's edition arrives from 2026-27.
Q 20Who was the first jumper to win all four events of a single Four Hills Tournament, in 2001-02?
Sven Hannawald
Only Kamil Stoch (2017-18) and Ryoyu Kobayashi (2018-19) have repeated the grand slam.
Q 24Matti Nykänen was known by what nickname?
The Flying Finn
After retiring he became a pop singer and a tabloid fixture, and served two prison sentences for violent offences.
Q 25Eddie the Eagle became the first British Olympic ski jumper at which Games?
1988 Calgary
He finished last on both hills but held the British record until 2001, and was played by Taron Egerton in the 2016 film.
Q 26The Eddie the Eagle Rule introduced by the IOC requires Olympic hopefuls to do what?
Rank in the top 30 percent or top 50 internationally
The rule was made after his fame in Calgary and effectively closed the door on similar underdogs.
Q 27Eddie Edwards learned of his Olympic qualification while working as a plasterer and living where?
A Finnish mental hospital
He was there for lack of money for other accommodation, not as a patient, and jumped in borrowed boots with six pairs of socks.
Q 28Simon Ammann's bespectacled look in 2002 drew comparisons to which fictional character?
Harry Potter
The Swiss jumper won both individual golds in Salt Lake City and repeated the double in Vancouver in 2010.
Q 29Simon Ammann won four individual Olympic gold medals at which two Games?
2002 and 2010
He was only the second athlete after Nykänen to win both hills at one Games, and the first to win the normal hill twice.
Q 30Poland's Adam Małysz shares the male record of four World Cup overall titles with which jumper?
Matti Nykänen
Małysz was the first man to win three straight titles and later drove the Dakar Rally, finishing 13th in 2014.