Lindsey Van

American former ski jumper (born 1984)

Lindsey Van
Medal record

Women's ski jumping
Representing the United States
World Championships
	2009 Liberec	Individual normal hill

Lindsey Marie Van^[1] (born November 27, 1984) is an American former ski jumper who won her first of 13 U.S. National Ski Jumping Championships in 1998^[2] and competed in her first FIS event in 2002.^[3] Van won a gold medal in the inaugural women's ski jumping event at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 in Liberec and has a total of eight Continental Cup victories in her career.

In 2008, Van's knee cartilage was crushed on the landing of a practice jump; she underwent knee surgery and five months of intense rehab.^[4] She returned to competition after six months but injured her knee again.^[4] Van has experienced four knee surgeries and a ruptured spleen.^[4]

Van was a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the organizers of the 2010 Winter Olympics; she and other female ski jumpers claimed that their rights were violated because only male ski jumpers were permitted to compete in the Vancouver Olympics.^[5] The appeal was unsuccessful.^[6] Van characterized the Canadian legal system as "weak" and said the International Olympic Committee were "like the Taliban of the Olympics."^[6]

Going into the Vancouver 2010 Games, Van held the K95 hill record of 105.5 meters at the site of the 2010 Olympic ski jumping events.^[7]^[8] This mark was surpassed several times at the 2010 Olympic Games^[9]^[10]^[11] and is now held by Simon Ammann with a jump of 108.0 meters.^[12]

In 2011, it was announced that women's ski jumping on the normal hill would be included in the 2014 Winter Olympics.^[4] Van said, "I was kind of numb when I heard. People expected me to be ecstatic, but I'd been after this for so long, it just didn't sink in at first."^[4]

In July 2011, nerve tissues in one of her legs became a problem.^[4]

On the appeal of her sport, Van has said, "You are up the in the air and for a minute it's as if you can fly. It's a feeling like nothing else I've ever felt, and as soon as I land, I just want to go back up to the top and do it again."^[4]

References

^ Lindsey Van [@lindseyvan] (March 30, 2014). "@middlenamegame marie" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
^ "Lindsey Van" at US Ski & Snowboard
^ FIS career at FIS
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Savacool, Julia (September 26, 2011). "Leap of faith". ESPN. Archived from the original on October 28, 2011. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
^ 5 Female Ski Jumpers Want to Be Added to Lawsuit Yahoo Sports, March 9, 2009 ^{[dead link]}
^ ^a ^b Female ski jumpers lose appeal CBC News Vancouver, November 13, 2009
^ Van wins women's ski jump title Associated Press via ESPN.com, February 20, 2009
^ Female Jumpers Frozen Out At Olympics NBC News, February 10, 2010
^ Normal hill qualification. Archived 2010-05-13 at the Wayback Machine Vancouver 2010 Olympics, retrieved March 3, 2010.
^ Normal hill first round. Archived 2010-02-13 at the Wayback Machine Vancouver 2010 Olympics, retrieved March 3, 2010.
^ Normal hill final round. Archived 2010-02-13 at the Wayback Machine Vancouver 2010 Olympics, retrieved March 3, 2010.
^ Whistler Olympic Hill Archived 2011-08-12 at the Wayback Machine FIS Ski Jumping, retrieved March 3, 2010.