Taking flight: Comeback of American ski jumper Sarah Hendrickson

American ski jumper and Team Visa athlete Sarah Hendrickson returned to the ski jump this week after a devastating knee injury that put her out of World Cup competition for 18 months. Her comeback was historic not for her score or ranking but for where the jump took place.

The iconic Nansen Ski Jump, a towering 171-foot-tall steel structure built in 1938 in Milan, New Hampshire, was neglected for more than 30 years before Hendrickson helped initiate the restoration effort. The jump, nicknamed “Big Nansen,” hosted the first Olympic ski jumping qualifiers in 1938 and was a training and competition ground for the Nansen Ski Club, the country’s oldest continually operating ski club. Hendrickson’s comeback coincided with Big Nansen’s comeback after a year-long process of modernizing the jump in a bid for National Historic Landmark status by the Department of Interior. The jump would be Big Nansen’s last before retiring it from ski jumping events.

Hendrickson, 22, grew up in Park City, Utah but has close ties to New Hampshire. Her parents, Bill and Nancy, are natives of New Hampshire and former ski racers. They were high school sweethearts in Plymouth, New Hampshire, and Hendrickson’s grandmother still lives in the area. 

“Ski jumping was once a huge part of the community here, and I can still feel that when I am here,” said Hendrickson, the 2013 women’s ski jumping World Champion. “People are really excited about this project and having this jump restored as a historical landmark, it’s really an honor to come back and jump and hear the stories from families in this area.”

Red Bull and Visa were there to capture the moment—watch Hendrickson soar 55 feet over the Big Nansen and read more about the event on RedBull.com.