Ski jumping originated in Norway, and has been practiced since time immemorial, using hand-made temporary hills.3 The first record is credited to Olaf Rye, a soldier who set up a show spectated by his fellow soldiers in 1808, reaching 9.5 meters on Vardebakken hill in Eidsberg, Norway. This small hill was at Lekum gård next to the Eidsberg's church.4
Sondre Norheim, credited as the father of modern skiing,5 made the second official record at 19.5 meters in 1868. Tim Ashburn says in his book The history of ski jumping that Norheim's longest jump in the circular track in Haugli ground in 1868 should have been measured at 31.5 meters (103 ft),6 but that newspapers in Christiania reported that the length "was little exaggerated", so official record is everywhere written as 19.5 meters (64 ft).
The sport quickly spread to Finland, the United States and Canada, where some of the subsequent records were set.7 Early jumping competitions were only scored by style, and it was seen as disruptive to attempt to jump further.2 Not until 1901 was a scoring system for distance introduced.8 With the construction of Bloudkova Velikanka in Planica, Yugoslavia, in 1934,9 the more extreme ski flying was introduced. With one exception, since then all of the length records have been set in six of the world's seven ski flying hills, of which five remain in use.10 In 1936, Josef Bradl was the first to reach the 100 meter mark.11 FIS was long opposed to ski flying, and it has never been included in the Olympic or Nordic World Ski Championships. However, since 1972, the FIS Ski-Flying World Championships was introduced, and there have also been annual ski flying jumps in as part of the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup. The first to reach 200 meters was Toni Nieminen in 1994; at the time, ski jumpers did not receive distance points fro the part of the jumps exceeding 191 meters.12
The distance is measured from the lip of the takeoff to the place on the hill where the skier's back foot is when he touches the ground. To qualify, the jump must be made in a sanctioned competition, or official trial or qualification runs for these, with a system to control the actual length. To win a competition, a jumper needs both distance and style, the latter of which is achieved by attaining a proper Telemark landing; therefore jumpers are not motivated to jump as far as possible, only as far necessary to attain a good landing. Jumps are invalid if the jumper falls, defined as touching the ground with his hands or body before reaching the fall line. Originally, jumps were measured in alen, but this has since been replaced by meters, with an accuracy of half a meter. Some old United States and Canadian records were recorded in feet. Traditionally, people would stand along the hill for every meter, and a crew member would raise their hand if the jumper landed on their meter. Today this is done with camera technology.13
The following is a list of all world records set distance in ski jumping. The list contains the length in meters and feet, the year the record was set, the athlete and the country they competed for, the location and country of the venue, the name of the hill and the ski manufacturer.110
Blyberget, Norway (1890) - barely no exepct slovenian statistic mentions world record from norwegian jumper G. Bye, who jumped 30 meters. Not clear if it was set on training
Salt Lake City (1931) - Alf Engen, norwegian jumper set WR with 77.4 meters but barely no statistic mentions it. Not clear if it was set on training
Planica (1936) - austrian's Sepp Bradl WR jump was officialy written on scoreboard as 101 meters. But it was really 101.5 meters long, because there was no room for the fourth number in scoreboard. the number is also graved on Bradl's Trophy in Ski Museum in Austria
Vikersund (1966) - norwegian jumper Bjørn Wirkola tied WR 145 meters in trial round with german jumper Peter Lesser. Some statistics doesn't mention it as world record
Oberstdorf (1984) - finnish jumper Matti Nykänen has two times on the same day, first set and then tied his own WR with 182 meters, not clear which one isn't mention. Some statistics doesn't mention one of them. Not clear if it was set on training
Planica (1991) - german's Ralph Gebstedt 194 meters tied WR jump in final round on March 24, is strangely not mentioned in any WR statistics
Invalid world records
If a jumper touches the ground with his hands or body before reaching the fall line, the jump is counted as a fall and the jumper receives a severe penalty to the style score, although the jumper is not disqualified from the race. Also fully standing jumps WR jumps set in training are not recognized as world records. Such jumps are also not regarded as setting world records in distance. The following is a list of jumps which would have set world records, had the jumper not fallen.
Revelstoke, Canada (1916) - canadian jumper Nels Nelsen set standing WR with 55.8 meters, but this WR was never recognized because it was set on a training
Planica (1934) - norwegian's Per Jonson WR distance standing jump 89 meters mentioned only as hill record. The same WR distance supposed to be achieved by austrian Gregor Höll.
Salt Lake City (1935) - Alf Engen, norwegian jumper set standing WR distance with 94.8 meters, but this WR was never recognized because it was set on a training
Planica (1941) - WR distance 109 m with fall supposed to be achieved by nazi german Heinrich Palme. The same WR distance supposed to be achieved by nazi german Franz Mair, still not clear if standing/fall.
Planica (1991) - german André Kiesewetter jumped 196 meters touching hands with snow, but the distance was written as 191 meters, to prevent wide-hunting world records and due to "191 rule"
Harrachov (1992) - german Christof Duffner jumped and fell at official 194 meters. It's claimed that this jump was actually over 200 meters or even 205 meters long, but this was never recognized and measured as that distance or written down on a paper
Planica (1994) - german Christof Duffner jumped 207 or 207.5 meters, still not clear today was it standig or fall, and not clear if it was set on training. Also not clear if it was a world record distance or not
