Ski Jumping
It's time for Sarah Hendrickson's return to flight
The ski jumper is setting the foundation for a historic comeback to the sport she loves.
1 min
Sarah Hendrickson - Sleeping Giant teaser
Support ski jumping icon Sarah Hendrickson for her comeback after an ACL injury!
Sarah Hendrickson knows what it feels like to fly. As one of the most accomplished American ski jumpers alive, she’s used to hurtling down a ramp at 95kph, then soaring through the air over 90m in distance – further than a football field – hovering about 5m above the ground before touching back down to Earth.
"It’s hard to explain, but as soon as you take off, time slows down and you can make tiny changes and feel the effect that it has in the air," she says. "It feels like flying without the help of anything. It’s such a peaceful moment, there are no worries. You take a breath and ask, 'Am I really flying right now?'"
Sarah Hendrickson, resting between sets
© Vita Brevis/Red Bull Content Pool
Hendrickson has been missing that sensation. In August 2015, she tore her right ACL on a training jump in Germany. It was her third major knee injury and, this time, she was grounded, so to speak. There would be no ski jumping for quite some time, doctors told her.
After surgery, she spent the next 18 months rehabilitating her knee and getting her strength back, clocking five hours a day, six days a week in the gym at the US Ski Team’s training facility in Hendrickson’s hometown of Park City, Utah. She sat out the entirety of last winter and was forced to watch her peers compete from the seat of her stationary bike.
Through every rehab, you learn new things along the way. This one was a huge mental game for me
"Through every rehab, you learn new things along the way,” says Hendrickson, the 2013 women’s ski jumping World Champion. "This one was a huge mental game for me. Having so many problems on one knee, you go through some trust issues. I really had to learn to trust my knee again and trust the process."
Sarah Hendrickson, ramping up for her return
© Vita Brevis/Red Bull Content Pool
Hendrickson is the 22-year-old star of a niche, often-misunderstood sport that had to battle for years for the right to compete. Although men’s ski jumping has been part of the Olympic program since the inaugural winter games in 1924, women’s ski jumping didn’t make its debut until 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Hendrickson was just returning from injury then and didn’t get the results the world knows she’s capable of.
So she has her sights set on the upcoming PyeongChang 2018: "I still have the dream. My goal is to win gold, but I have to remember there are a lot of steps to take before I can even walk through those opening ceremonies."
Sunshine or snow, Hendrickson is getting after it
© Vita Brevis/Red Bull Content Pool
Hendrickson recently took her first step: she boarded a flight bound for Europe, where she’ll compete in this week’s opening World Cup for women’s ski jumping, held in Lillehammer, Norway. She'll compete in four World Cups this December and beyond that, there are the World Championships later this winter, where she dreams of defending her 2013 title.
She’s had several practice jumps earlier this season, but this week marks her first time jumping on snow since before her injury. "I was really scared to jump after so long away. But now I’m not nervous about that at all," she says. "Once I get into it, I know my brain will recognise the routine. There’s so much muscle memory, getting into the flight position feels effortless."
One of the positives of being injured is that when you’re healthy again, you take nothing for granted
A ski jumper since she was eight-years-old, Hendrickson has had plenty of time to imprint the motions of her sport into her mind and body. And through all of her recent rehab – some 2,000 hours in the gym over the last year and a half, countless squats and lunges and even simulating her in-run position in a wind tunnel – she has had her mind focused on one thing: Returning to flight.
"One of the positives of being injured, when you’re healthy again, you take nothing for granted," she says. "I really appreciate that feeling and the beauty of the sport. The reason why I got started and the reason why I train so hard is I love that feeling of flying. Getting back on the jump, you remember why you work so hard."
