Lindsey Van

Medal record
Women's ski jumping
Representing the  United States
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2009 LiberecIndividual normal hill

Lindsey Marie Van[1] (born November 27, 1984) is an American former ski jumper who won her first of 13 U.S. National Ski Jumping Championships in 1998[2] and competed in her first FIS event in 2002.[3] Van won a gold medal in the inaugural women's ski jumping event at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 in Liberec and has a total of eight Continental Cup victories in her career.

In 2008, Van's knee cartilage was crushed on the landing of a practice jump; she underwent knee surgery and five months of intense rehab.[4] She returned to competition after six months but injured her knee again.[4] Van has experienced four knee surgeries and a ruptured spleen.[4]

Van was a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the organizers of the 2010 Winter Olympics; she and other female ski jumpers claimed that their rights were violated because only male ski jumpers were permitted to compete in the Vancouver Olympics.[5] The appeal was unsuccessful.[6] Van characterized the Canadian legal system as "weak" and said the International Olympic Committee were "like the Taliban of the Olympics."[6]

Going into the Vancouver 2010 Games, Van held the K95 hill record of 105.5 meters at the site of the 2010 Olympic ski jumping events.[7][8] This mark was surpassed several times at the 2010 Olympic Games[9][10][11] and is now held by Simon Ammann with a jump of 108.0 meters.[12]

In 2011, it was announced that women's ski jumping on the normal hill would be included in the 2014 Winter Olympics.[4] Van said, "I was kind of numb when I heard. People expected me to be ecstatic, but I'd been after this for so long, it just didn't sink in at first."[4]

In July 2011, nerve tissues in one of her legs became a problem.[4]

On the appeal of her sport, Van has said, "You are up the in the air and for a minute it's as if you can fly. It's a feeling like nothing else I've ever felt, and as soon as I land, I just want to go back up to the top and do it again."[4]

References

  1. ↑ Lindsey Van [@lindseyvan] (March 30, 2014). "@middlenamegame marie" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. ↑ "Lindsey Van" at US Ski & Snowboard
  3. ↑ FIS career at FIS
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Savacool, Julia (September 26, 2011). "Leap of faith". ESPN. Archived from the original on October 28, 2011. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
  5. ↑ 5 Female Ski Jumpers Want to Be Added to Lawsuit Yahoo Sports, March 9, 2009
  6. 1 2 Female ski jumpers lose appeal CBC News Vancouver, November 13, 2009
  7. ↑ Van wins women's ski jump title Associated Press via ESPN.com, February 20, 2009
  8. ↑ Female Jumpers Frozen Out At Olympics NBC News, February 10, 2010
  9. ↑ Normal hill qualification. Archived 2010-05-13 at the Wayback Machine Vancouver 2010 Olympics, retrieved March 3, 2010.
  10. ↑ Normal hill first round. Archived 2010-02-13 at the Wayback Machine Vancouver 2010 Olympics, retrieved March 3, 2010.
  11. ↑ Normal hill final round. Archived 2010-02-13 at the Wayback Machine Vancouver 2010 Olympics, retrieved March 3, 2010.
  12. ↑ Whistler Olympic Hill Archived 2011-08-12 at the Wayback Machine FIS Ski Jumping, retrieved March 3, 2010.
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