PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AP) — It's the Olympic sport famed for its spectacular speed, exhilarating aerodynamics and cringe-worthy crashes. And yet ski jumping, a sport in which athletes hurtle down a ramp at 100 kilometers (60 miles) per hour before jumping the length of a football field, remains relatively obscure outside of Europe and Japan.
Apart from a brief profile boost thanks to "Eddie the Eagle," the 2016 film about British ski jumper Eddie Edwards' unlikely bid to become an Olympian, ski jumping is still a bit of a puzzle to much of the public. So what, exactly, goes into ski jumping — and how the heck do the jumpers manage to land without killing themselves?