Vikersundbakken or Vikersund HillMacArthur, Paul J. 2011. Taking Flight. Skiing Heritage 23(2) (March–April): 20–25, p. 23.Bass, Howard. 1968. Winter Sports. South Brunswick, NJ: A. S. Barnes, p. 62.Ski Jump: Watch Anders Fannemel Set the New World Record. 2015. The Telegraph (February 16). is a ski flying hill at Vikersund in Modum, Norway. It is one of the two largest purpose-built ski flying hills in the world. Nine world records have been set there. The complex consists of a large hill, a normal hill and several training hills.
The hill originally constructed by Kristian Hovde was opened in 1936 as a large hill. It was rebuilt as ski flying hill in 1964, and was modified in 1989, 1999 and 2010. The present large hill was built in 1988. Vikersundbakken was the first ski flying hill to receive floodlights in 2006. It has hosted the FIS Ski Flying World Championships in 1977, 1990, 2000, 2012 and 2022.
History
In 1894, Vikersund SK was established and started with ski jumping. Until the 1930s, they used six different ski jumping hills around the area. By then, the club had fostered sufficiently good jumpers that it was proposed to build a proper hill. A committee was established on 19 March 1935 and led by Gustav N. Hovde. At first they found a suitable location north of Heggen. However, they failed to reach an agreement with the land owner. Instead, Hovde proposed using the steep hill close to Heggen Church. After purchasing the land, construction started later in 1935. The original hill was designed by Thunold Hansen. Construction cost 6,290 Norwegian krone (NOK), of which NOK 1000 was borrowed and the rest of financed through private donations.Drolsum: 42
The first hill had a length from the top of the in-run to the bottom of the out-run of and an elevation difference of . The in-run was long and had an elevation difference of . The hill was inaugurated on 29 January 1936 with a 50-meter jump by Birger Henriksen. The longest jump on the opening day was made by Reidar Andersen, who jumped 86 meters. At the most he was above the landing slope, so the take-off was lowered from 6 to 11 degrees.Drolsum: 43
The main logistical issue with the events was the poor transport service, with only a narrow road to the hill. During the 1950s, the attendance rose well beyond the former 5,000, forcing the road to be upgraded in 1955.Drolsum: 47 By the 1950s, ski jumps were being built larger and in 1954, Kristian Hovde proposed to expand Vikersundbakken, which he hoped would allow jumps of . The plans were passed by the club's annual meeting on 13 September, with construction starting in the summer of 1955. The lower part of the landing slope was dug down , the in-run was raised up to and a new jury tower and stairway was built. Additional expansion was passed on 27 April 1956: a tall scaffolding in-run was built on top of the old in-run. The hill was designed by Carl Borgen. Contractors were Brødrene Teigen and since the club did not have sufficient funds, they were willing to wait with the payment until they had. The new hill was inaugurated on 10 March 1956.Drolsum: 46
The new hill was too large to be regarded as a large hill, but was not large enough to be categorized as a ski flying hill. In 1964, the club appointed a committee led by Ottar Grøtterud to consider an expansion of the hill.Drolsum: 49 There was only to be built one ski flying hill in the Nordic Countries, with the main alternative being Renabakken in Rena.Drolsum: 54 Construction cost NOK 445,000 and was in part financed with a NOK 75,000 grant and NOK 150,000 loan from Modum Municipality, NOK 20,000 from volunteer work, NOK 80,000 from the club, grants from companies and banks and from Buskerud County Municipality, and NOK 100,000 in betting funds.Drolsum: 55 Construction was done by Entreprenør Gunnar Sterkebye. The hill received a new tall in-run and a new jury tower form the jump. On the landing slope and out-run, of earthwork had to be moved. Work was made more difficult because of high snowfall and temperatures down to . The hill was inaugurated on 13 March 1966.Drolsum: 53
The next upgrade of the venue were minor upgrades ahead of the 1977 World Championships. Ahead of the 1990 World Championships, the venue was again renovated. However, to secure better recruitment, the venue also received a new normal hill with a K point of K-90.Drolsum: 61
The hill was rebuilt for the 2012 Ski Flying World Championships. It was the first in the world with a hill size of 225 meters, making Vikersundbakken the largest ski flying hill in the world at the time. It has been built further into the terrain with sidewalls made of natural gravel to avoid wind problems during competitions. Furthermore, it has been slanted slightly to the south from the inrun area to further reduce wind problems. The hill was ready for the 2011 Trial Ski Flying World Championships held on 11–13 February 2011.
The old inrun was demolished in 2010. The engineers of the new and larger hill were Slovenians Janez Gorišek and his son Sebastjan. Janez, together with his brother Lado, is most famous for creating Letalnica Bratov Gorišek in Planica, previously the largest hill in the world at HS 215, before Vikersundbakken was reprofiled and enlarged in 2011. Janez is usually named as the 'father' of modern ski flying and is also known as an expert on ski flying hills.
At the trial ski flying championship, Johan Remen Evensen jumped 243 meters to set a new world record during the first official training on 11 February 2011. Later, during qualification, Evensen improved the world record to 246.5 meters.
During autumn 2011 the hill was further improved with a different radius at HS 225, increasing the ability to stand on greater lengths. Additionally the jump itself was cut a meter short because of decreased inrun speed needed by the jumpers. During the 2011 event, it was deemed necessary to add several inrun gates the hill below gate 1 due to better conditions not anticipated by the organisers during construction in 2010. A total of five gates were added. Gregor Schlierenzauer praised the hill during interviews, calling it the best hill in the world. Evensen was also extremely satisfied with the hill, calling it "perfect". The K point was increased from K-195 in 2012 to K-200 in time for the 2015 event,"Vikersundbakken now a K200". skisprungschanzen.com. Retrieved 2015-03-09. resulting in two new world records on the same weekend: Peter Prevc jumped 250 m (820 ft) and became to first to ever surpass the 250 m mark, and this was followed by Anders Fannemel with 251.5 m (825 ft) the next day. In a training round prior to Fannemel's jump, Dimitry Vassiliev jumped 254 m (833 ft) but fell hard upon landing, rendered his jump invalid as a world record.
Events Opened as large hill in 1936 and converted into flying hill in 1966.
DateHillsizeCompetitionWinnerSecondThirdLARGE HILL (original)16 February 1936 Hilmar Myhra 1937 Reidar Andersen 1938 VIKC 1939 VIKC 1940 VIKC Reidar Andersen 17 February 1946 VIKC Arnholdt Kongsgård Reidar Andersen Vidar Lindboe-Hansen9 March 1947 VIKC Thorleif Schjelderup Svein Haakonsen Hans Kaarstein14 March 1948 VIKC Arnholdt Kongsgård Ivar Nilsen Christian Mohn 1949 VIKC cancelled 19 March 1950 VIKC Hans Bjørnstad Ivar Nilsen Birger Arnesen 18 February 1951 VIKC Kjell Knarvik Arne Hoel Reidar Andersen2 March 1952 VIKC Arnfinn Bergmann Arne Hoel Svein Lien8 March 1953 VIKC Georg Thrane Per Thyness Thorleif Schjelderup28 February 1954 VIKC Asgeir Dølplads 3 April 1954 13 March 1955 VIKC wind; rescheduled to 26 March 26 March 1955 VIKC Arnfinn Karlstad Simon Slåttvik Erling Kroken4 March 1956 VIKC Asbjørn Osnes 10 March 1957 VIKC Arne Hoel Simon Slåttvik Asbjørn Osnes 15 March 1958 VIKC 1 March 1959 VIKC Arne Hoel Odd A. Brevik Olinius Skaaret 27 March 1960 VIKC Markku Maatela Paavo Lukkariniemi Asbjørn Osnes 5 March 1961 VIKC Olinius Skaaret 4 March 1962 VIKC Asbjørn Osnes Pekka Remes Vesa Ekholm10 March 1963 VIKC Torbjørn Yggeseth Torgeir Brandtzæg Raimo Vitikainen8 March 1964 VIKC Toralf Engan Bjørn Wirkola Christoffer SelbekkFLYING HILL (converted)13 March 1966 VIKC Bjørn Wirkola Toralf Engan Christoffer Selbekk 11-12 March 1967 Reinhold Bachler Jiří Raška Bjørn Wirkola 10 March 1968 strong wind 8-9 March 1969 KOP Bjørn Wirkola Jiří Raška Zbyněk Hubač 27-28 February 1971 KOP Frithjof Prydz Zbyněk Hubač Bent Tomtum 11-18 February 1973 KOP lack of snow 22-23 February 1975 KOP Reinhold Bachler Hans Wallner Edi Federer 18 February 1977 K150 SFWC Walter Steiner Anton Innauer Henry Glaß 29 February - 2 March 1980 K155 Per Bergerud Stanisław Bobak Ján Tánczos 18 February 1983 K155 WC Matti Nykänen Pavel Ploc Hans Wallner 19 February 1983 K155 WC Matti Nykänen Horst Bulau Tuomo Ylipulli 20 February 1983 K155 WC Matti Nykänen Olav Hansson Pavel Ploc 15 February 1986 K155 WC Andreas Felder Matti Nykänen Piotr Fijas 16 February 1986 K155 WC Andreas Felder Ernst Vettori Matti Nykänen 25 February 1990 K175 SFWC Dieter Thoma Matti Nykänen Jens Weißflog 20 March 1993 K175 WC cancelled 21 March 1993 K175 WC 18 February 1995 K175 WC Andreas Goldberger Takanobu Okabe Lasse Ottesen 19 February 1995 K175 WC Andreas Goldberger Takanobu Okabe Roberto Cecon 28 February 1998 K175 WC postponed on next day 1 March 1998 K175 WC Andreas Widhölzl Sven Hannawald Akira Higashi 1 March 1998 K175 WC Takanobu Okabe Hiroya Saito Noriaki Kasai 12-13 February 2000 K185 SFWC original date; strong winds, postponed to 14 February 14 February 2000 K185 SFWC Sven Hannawald Andreas Widhölzl Janne Ahonen 6 March 2004 K185 Roland Müller Olav Magne Dønnem Balthasar Schneider 7 March 2004 K185 CC Roland Müller Balthasar Schneider Martin Koch 13 January 2007 HS207 WC cancelled (night) 14 January 2007 HS207 WC Anders Jacobsen Thomas Morgenstern Matti Hautamäki (night) 14 March 2009 HS207 WC- 15 March 2009 HS207 WC Gregor Schlierenzauer Simon Ammann Dimitry Vassiliev (night) 12 February 2011 HS225 WC Gregor Schlierenzauer Johan Remen Evensen Simon Ammann 13 February 2011 HS225 WC Gregor Schlierenzauer Johan Remen Evensen Adam Małysz (night) 25 February 2012 HS225 SFWC-I Robert Kranjec Rune Velta Martin Koch 26 February 2012 HS225 SFWC-T (night) 26 February 2013 HS225 WC Gregor Schlierenzauer Simon Ammann Robert Kranjec 27 February 2013 HS225 WC Robert Kranjec Michael Neumayer Gregor Schlierenzauer (night) 14 February 2015 HS225 WC Peter Prevc Anders Fannemel Noriaki Kasai15 February 2015 HS225 WC Severin Freund Anders Fannemel Johann André Forfang(night) 12 February 2016 HS225 WC Robert Kranjec Kenneth Gangnes Noriaki Kasai (night) 13 February 2016 HS225 WC Peter Prevc Johann André Forfang Robert Kranjec 14 February 2016 HS225 WC Peter Prevc Stefan Kraft Andreas Stjernen17 March 2017 HS225 Kamil Stoch Andreas Wellinger Domen Prevc18 March 2017 HS225 WC/RA–T 19 March 2017 HS225 WC/RA–I Kamil Stoch Noriaki Kasai Michael Hayböck16 March 2018 HS240 WC/RA(Q)–prol Kamil Stoch Robert Johansson Andreas Stjernen17 March 2018 HS240 WC/RA–T 18 March 2018 HS240 WC/RA–I Robert Johansson Andreas Stjernen Daniel-André Tande
The inaugural competition was held on 25 February 1936 in front of 5,000 spectators. Hilmar Myhra won the race, setting the first official hill record at .Drolsum: 44 The hill was used for a single major competition each year, Vikersundrennet. Arnold Kongsgård beat the hill record in 1946 when he jumped and then beat it with another meter two years later. The ultimate hill record in the original hill was , which was also a new Norwegian record, set by Arne Hoel in 1951.Drolsum: 45 After the opening of the new jump in 1957, Hoel set a new hill record of . The following year, Asbjørn Osnes set a new hill record of and then again in 1960 by Paavo Lukkariniemi of .