Lindsey Van
| File:Lindsey Van crop.JPG | ||
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Women's ski jumping | ||
| Representing the File:Flag of the United States (23px).png United States | ||
| World Championships | ||
| Gold medal – first place | 2009 Liberec | Individual normal hill |
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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
- ↑ Lindsey Van [@lindseyvan] (30 March 2014). "@middlenamegame marie" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ↑ "Lindsey Van" at US Ski & Snowboard
- ↑ FIS career at FIS
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Savacool, Julia (September 26, 2011). "Leap of faith". ESPN. Archived from the original on October 28, 2011. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
- ↑ 5 Female Ski Jumpers Want to Be Added to Lawsuit Yahoo Sports, March 9, 2009 [dead link]
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Female ski jumpers lose appeal CBC News Vancouver, November 13, 2009
- ↑ Van wins women's ski jump title Associated Press via ESPN.com, February 20, 2009
- ↑ Female Jumpers Frozen Out At Olympics NBC News, February 10, 2010
- ↑ Normal hill qualification. Archived 2010-05-13 at the Wayback Machine Vancouver 2010 Olympics, retrieved March 3, 2010.
- ↑ Normal hill first round. Archived 2010-02-13 at the Wayback Machine Vancouver 2010 Olympics, retrieved March 3, 2010.
- ↑ Normal hill final round. Archived 2010-02-13 at the Wayback Machine Vancouver 2010 Olympics, retrieved March 3, 2010.
- ↑ Whistler Olympic Hill Archived 2011-08-12 at the Wayback Machine FIS Ski Jumping, retrieved March 3, 2010.
