February 20, 2009 (Liberec, Czech Republic) – Park City, Utah’s Lindsey Van has made history as the winner of the first FIS Nordic Worlds Women’s Ski Jumping event held in Liberec on Friday. Van’s fantastic second jump gave her the gold over Ulrike Graessler (Ger) in second with Norway’s Anette Sagen taking the bronze. The USA’s Jessica Jerome finished 6th and the top Canadian was Nata de Leeuw in 11th.

USSA Release – USA’s Van Wins First FIS Women’s Ski Jumping Title

LIBEREC, Czech Republic (Feb. 20) – Lindsey Van (Park City, UT) stunned the field with a massive second jump Friday to become her sport’s first world champion. Van, tied for fourth after the first jump, soared 97.5 meters to take a strong win over first round leader Ulrike Graessler of Germany to win the debut of women’s ski jumping at the FIS Nordic Ski World Championships in Liberec.

KEY POINTS
– First women’s World Championship
– Van came from behind after a poor trial round jump, then fourth after first competition round
– Her 97.5 meter second jump was longest of day by 3.5 meters
– Van has been skiing all season with a knee injury, often skipping training and trial rounds
– Van is one of a strong group of women’s jumpers from Park City, UT who have been pioneering their sport
– Only previous U.S. jumping medal was Anders Haugen, 1924, bronze in combined Olympics and World Championships

LINDSEY VAN QUOTES

I am proud of this. It means a lot to me to be my sport’s first World Champion and have the first gold medal in ski jumping for our country. That’s something nobody has ever done and I did it.

It’s the high point of my career. It’s a relief to have it over. I am happy all my hard work over the years has paid off, especially in the last year.

This is for everyone. This is for all the women who have been pushing the sport over the last 10 years and all the women who really did well today. They deserve this too.

I think it’s a step in the right direction for the sport. I think the competition went pretty well.

It was a hard competition, a hard day. and I think the top three, I want to share this with the top three because we’ve all worked together in the sport for years.

I’ve definitely made it a point just to give it all the time. There’s no holding back at all for me. I don’t expect anything anymore, I just try to do what I can do, hope for the best and have fun when something good happens.

I feel like everything I’ve done over the last 18 years is finally paying off this season. It’s been a great season here overall.

I think this is great for the Team as well. I want to share this with them, too. Jessica did well, Alissa did well and it’s awesome for Sarah to be here competing. They deserve this, too. They deserve what our sport is headed toward. I’m glad I could do this for our Team and for our country. I thank everyone at home for all the support.

From here I’m just going to try and keep doing the same thing. I wouldn’t say my focus changes at all. I just want to keep jumping far and having fun. If that results in winning, then I’m psyched.

Full results here.

Results (brief)

1. Lindsey Van (USA) 89.0, 97.5 – 243.0 pts
2. Ulrike Graessler (Ger) 93.5, 93.0 – 239.0
3. Anette Sagen (Nor) 93.5, 94.0- 238.5
4. Daniela Iraschko (Aut) 89.0, 91.0 – 228.0
5. Coline Mattel (Fra) 90.0, 87.5 – 220.5

6. Jessica Jerome (USA) 80.5, 91.0 – 207.0
11. Nata de Leeuw (Can) 84.5, 82.0 – 195.0
19. Katie Willis (Can) 69.0, 74.5 – 134.0
20. Alissa Johnson (USA) 75.0, 63.5 – 131.0
29. Sarah Hendrickson (USA) 60.5, 69.5 – 110.5