Photo Courtesy of Sarah Hendrickson’s Official Facebook Page
By: Sierra Plese
The Sochi Olympics is full of athletes with amazing stories. The new women’s ski jump is a sport that’s undergone a hard-fought battle in recent years to be recognized as an Olympics sport. American athlete Sarah Hendrickson stands out among those who are competing for the first time.
Hendrickson has been enthralled with the sport of ski jumping since the age of seven when she first watched it in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. However, it has certainly been a hard road for her to get to Sochi.
Hendrickson is the winner of 13 world cup events in the last three years, making a name for herself in the sport at the young age of 19. Just as she was at the top of her game, Hendrickson had an accident during practice that could have destroyed everything. The crash tore her ACL and MCL away from the bone, along with major damage to the meniscus, resulting in surgery just five months ago.
Hendrickson began training one month before Sochi to qualify for the Games. Unfortunately, Hendrickson was not completely healed when the Olympics began. She finished 27th in a group of 29 for the first jump, and 25th out of 27 for the second. She has admitted that her knee is hurting and has decided to jump from a lower gate, subsequently taking her out of the running for the gold.
Hendrickson told USA Today that she sees herself as the underdog: “whereas I was reigning world champion, now nobody knows what to expect. I don’t want to say that it’s an excuse, but for me, my goal was to make it to Sochi, and I’ve already accomplished that.”
This is still a momentous occasion for Hendrickson as it is the first time the Olympics has included the women’s ski jump. Hendrickson herself has been involved in the fight since before the last Winter Olympics in 2010. It was at this time that she was part of a lawsuit lobbying for the inception of the women’s ski jump into the Olympics, but the suit failed.
Nevertheless, with her hopes of making it to the Olympics accomplished, Sarah Hendrickson has made herself someone to cheer for this year in Sochi, as the women ski jumpers make history.
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