An Olympic gold medalist's training video showcases the other-worldly balance and leg strength it takes to succeed in ski jumping
AP Photo/Matthias Schrader
- Ski jumping involves a lot more than just flinging one's body hundreds of feet through the air.
- Finding success in the thrilling Olympic sport requires incredible balance and leg strength.
- A clip of Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi, who won gold and silver in Beijing, shows the sport's demands.
Ski jumping takes much more than meets the eye.
The thrilling Olympic sport — in which athletes catapult off of a ramp at 60 miles per hour and soar hundreds of feet through the air before, ideally, landing gently on the slope below — appears to be an exercise in adrenaline and chaos.
But for those who are successful, the event actually requires an incredible amount of physical and mental discipline.
REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi is the class of the sport on the men's side. The 25-year-old won gold in the normal hill competition and silver in the large hill event at the Beijing Olympics. And to get there, he completed some mind-boggling training routines.
The Olympics' official Twitter account shared a video of Kobayashi's astounding workout regimen after he collected his medals. In the clip, the 5-foot-8, 132-pound star is seen leaping over waist-high hurdles and landing on bosu balls. He then tip-toes his way across an obstacle course of vertically placed dumbbells, medicine balls, more hurdles, and a four-wheel scooter board.
It's an absolute masterclass in balance, endurance, and core and leg strength. And it's no wonder that, when he takes off during a competition, Kobayashi can fly nearly 350 feet through the air.
Check out the incredible clip below:
—Olympics (@Olympics) February 13, 2022