#skijumpingchallenge

Day 20- Tag someone who always makes you smile

Not from Tumblr but, I must say it's Stephan Leyhe. Just look at him.

Tell us a little about yourself and how you started to watch ski jumping

Day 1: Tell us a little about yourself and how you started to watch ski jumping

Hi there! I'm Marilen, 18 years old and from Germany.

I can't quite remember the first time I watched ski jumping, because it's always been on TV from time to time, especially the "Neujahrsspringen" (is there an English name for it?). But I think I started watching it regularly and really getting into it at the end of the 2016/17 season on an originally quite boring weekend.

All my friends don't really understand how I can be so interested in such an, in their eyes, "boring" sport. But I was able to have some good conversations about it with my grandpa, who used to kill his time in winter by watching winter sports.

And of course I found the wholesome ski jumping family here on Tumblr, where I never thought sports was even a thing... but here we are, suffering together weekend after weekend.

Unfortunately, I've never been too close with any ski jumping accounts on here, but I just wanna say I love you all💕 I hope I'm able to get to know some new blogs and their owners throughout this challenge.

Day 4 - Who is your favourite ski jumper and why?

🎿 Stephan Leyhe

Stephan is like the sun, always a smile on his face, lightening everybody's mood. He's nice, funny and positive at all times. He never puts himself down after a bad jump and focuses on jumping better next time.

🎿 Daniel Andre Tande

Daniel had such a development throughout the years and always tries his best. I nearly cried as well when he started crying at the FTH 16/17, it was so sad. But he didn't gave up and came back strong, which was amazing.

And a few other ones of my faves 💙

World Cup in Oslo in March 2019. First winter comp I was to, by the way. Whole thing was a blast, getting to meet in person some of you, tumblr crew, watching dramatic Saturday sj and noco comps (and introducing @lewanarta​ to noco 😉), little sightseeing of Oslo…

Especially fondly I remember Sunday, March 10th. Between girls’ and guys’ comps we decided to go see the hill a bit closer and climb up the stands.

In theory, we did not have tickets for those better stands… but shhh

Nobody kicked us out, so we stayed and watched comp from there. And… aaah, seeing jumpers in the middle of flight, so close… Incredible. Clear blue sky, sun shining, so it was pretty warm (my fav got DSQ, but at this point I’m used to never be able to see him live performing well, lol), beautiful hill, amazing perspective to see jumpers from, sitting and sipping hot tea from thermos… Life felt great. And after the comp we went to see Mitdstubakken and got on top of it, getting stunning view on the city and bay.

When we got on the null I decided to slide on my ass from it 😆 Faster way of getting down the hill than stairs, but I ended up suffering when sitting for the next week 😂 No regrets tho, it was fun and an opportunity I couldn’t let pass. And only when I was watching the photos I took after going back home, I noticed there was “sliding down forbidden” sign 🙃

After all that we went back to the city and parted our ways seeing this view:

Day 9 - If you could choose one retired ski jumper to comeback, who would be and why?

That's a hard one. If I could, I would get back all the jumpers from my teenage time. 😂 Which would be Bjørn Einar Romøren, Roar Ljøkelsøy (well duh), Thomas Morgenstern, Janne Ahonen and who not. Too many to name 😂 But most of them ended a great career and best to leave when things are at their best, right? Someone who never really seemed to have gotten the chance is Kenneth Gangnes. And I'm glad I'm not the only one to think like that ♥️ He was so very unlucky and I'm glad he's got a job in ski jumping still. If I could snip my fingers and get him down that hill unharmed forever, I'd do it.

Day 17- Tag someone who makes the best gifs

Tell us a little about yourself and how you started to watch ski jumping

okay so. my name's jay n im 20 n i dont speak abt my country cus thats a bit gross innit. no thats not my real name n I've been told im, how to say that, chaotic, so just beware! im into a ton of sports and, unlike most of them, i have no clue how i got into ski jumping. tbh its just A Thing here and most people watch it at least recreationally sometimes, during the most important events at least. so i basically just Got Hooked and stuck with it, it was genuinely ages ago but still during every off season i forget what kinds of emotional bonds ive formed with these athletes i see on the tv so uh oh. this is a chaotic experience every time ig!!