Sixty-one athletes took part in the qualifying round of the competition, from which 50 athletes advanced to the two competition rounds. Swiss athlete Simon Ammann had the longest jumps in both competition rounds, winning the gold medal. The silver medal was won by Polish jumper Adam Małysz who had the third best results in both the first and second competition rounds. German jumper Michael Uhrmann was in second place following the first jump, but did poorly on his second jump and ended up fifth in the overall standings. Gregor Schlierenzauer of Austria moved up from seventh place to win the bronze medal after jumping a full 5 meters (16 ft) longer on his second attempt.
A normal hill in ski jumping is defined as a jump in which the width of the hill ranges from 85 meters (279 ft) to 109 meters (358 ft). Skiers ski down a sloped ramp, which then turns flat into a takeoff jump, and complete their jump on a landing slope. The rules of international ski jumping competitions, set by the governing body for ski jumping, the Fédération Internationale de Ski, award points based on two factors: distance and judge's score. Distance is measured from the edge of the takeoff ramp to the point where the jumper first touches the landing slope. The three judges are able to award up to 20 points each, for a total of 60 points. The judge's scores are based on a variety of factors including the timing of the takeoff, the skier's ability to carry out the movements involved in the jump, and their stability in the air.[3]
The field
Allocation of slots in the Olympic ski jumping competition was based upon the World Ranking List (WRL) consisting of Ski Jumping World Cup and Grand Prix points, followed by Continental Cup Standings from the 2008-09 and 2009-10 Ski Jumping World Cup, with no nation being allowed more than five skiers.[4]
Norway's Lars Bystøl was the defending Olympic champion on the normal hill, but he retired after the 2007-08 season and therefore did not participate in the 2010 Games.[5] However, The 2006 large hill gold medalist, AustrianThomas Morgenstern was present. Morgenstern had won the last scheduled normal hill event of the World Cup (on 14 December 2007 in Villach, Austria), and was expected to be among the strongest competitors in the event.[6][7] The last World Cup event in this discipline took place on 8 March 2009 at Lahti, Finland (though it was originally scheduled to be a large hill event) and was won by Gregor Schlierenzauer of Austria.[8] Although a relative newcomer to the sport, having only started competing in 2005-06, Schlierenzauer entered the competition with thirty-five World Cup victories under his belt.
The qualifying round for the men's normal hill individual event took place on 12 February with a trial qualification at 09:00 PST and a qualification round at 10:00 PST the same day.[1] Sixty-one athletes participated in the qualification round, with ten pre-qualified, including all four athletes from Austria.[10] The forty athletes with the highest scores advanced to the medal round on 13 February, joining the ten pre-qualified jumpers.[11]
Roberto Dellasega of Italy was disqualified, and therefore excluded from any opportunity to advance. Norway'sAnders Jacobsen did not show, but because he was pre-qualified he advanced to the competition round anyway. The top finisher in the qualifying round was Michael Uhrmann of Germany. His countryman Michael Neumayer had the second-longest jump but placed third to Czech jumper Jakub Janda because of Janda's higher judge's score. All four jumpers from the host country of Canada failed to qualify.[11]
Competition Rounds
The final competition, consisting of two jumps, took place on 13 February. The top thirty jumpers after the first jump qualified for the second jump. The combined total points over the two jumps was used to determine the final ranking. A practice round took place at 08:30 PST, with the first and second rounds of the event taking place at 09:45 PST and 10:45 PST respectively.[1]
In the second jump, Ammann again landed the longest jump, reaching a distance of 108 meters. After Ammann landed the jump, he immediately began pumping his arms in the air, confident that he had secured the gold medal.[2] Uhrmann, second after the first round, was one of the few competitors who had a shorter jump in the final round, placing tenth in the final round and fifth overall.[10] Among the jumpers who surpassed him was Adam Małysz, who again took third place in the final round and finished in second overall, winning the silver medal.[2] The bronze was won by Gregor Schlierenzauer, whose significantly better performance in the final round netted him second place for the round and third overall. Schlierenzauer's second jump was a full five meters longer than his first, the single largest improvement between the two rounds by any competitor.[10] Uhrmann's fifth-place finish was the top result by an athlete not pre-qualified for the competition round.[10]
