Why It Took 90 Years For Women's Ski Jumping To Make The Olympics

The first measured ski jump was explicitly a show of manhood. In 1809, the story goes, a lieutenant in the Norwegian military launched himself 9.5 meters through the air "to show his soldiers what a courageous fellow he was." The sport that grew out of that jump was likewise a test of manliness--far too dangerous, it was thought, for members of the gentler sex. "If a man gets a serious injury, it's still not fatal, but for women it could end much more seriously," a Russian ski jumping coach said...