“She looked like a boxer”
Opseth’s air show ends with a facial injury and a world record
March 17, 2024, 12:51 p.m
The dream of 17 female ski jumpers is coming true. For the first time they are allowed to fly in the World Cup. And the premiere immediately becomes a spectacle. Especially thanks to Silje Opseth. The Norwegian takes two dream flights, one ends painfully, the other ends in happiness.
Katharina Schmid narrowly missed the podium and the 200 meter mark in the first World Cup ski flying for women. The record world champion landed in fourth place among the 17 starters at the Monsterbakken in Vikersund, a good 15 meters short of the podium. The day’s victory went to the Norwegian Eirin Maria Kvandal, the Slovenian Nika Prevc secured early triumph in the overall World Cup.
But Silje Opseth flew into the history books: In the second round, the Norwegian improved Slovenia’s Ema Klinec’s world record from the previous year by 4.5 meters with a dream flight to 230.5 meters. Opseth even sailed to 236.5 meters in the test, but fell. Despite abrasions on his face, Opseth competed and took the record.
“She is one of the best and has shown it”
“She looked like a boxer after a fight. She is one of the best and showed it, I’m happy for her,” said Schmid about the new record holder on ZDF. The woman from Allgäu was also satisfied with her own competition: “Unfortunately I wasn’t able to reach 200 yet, but now I finally had the feeling of flying.”
Schmid landed at 183.5 and 195 meters and was visibly annoyed after landing: She hadn’t been able to achieve her big goal of breaking the magic mark of 200 meters for the first time in her career in the morning rehearsal, the competition was on Saturday been cancelled. The second German starter Selina Freitag landed at 165.0 and 169.5 m and took 16th place.
Kvandal was unbeatable with distances of 202 and 212 meters, meaning she also won the overall ranking of the week-long Raw Air Tour and prize money of 40,000 euros. Opseth and Klinec completed the podium. Prevc finished eleventh to be declared the winner of the overall World Cup after 23 of 24 competitions. Two days after her 18th birthday, Prevc followed in the footsteps of her older brother Peter, who had won the big crystal ball in the winter of 2015/16.