Park City • There have been plenty of problems and no podiums in the months and years since U.S. ski jumping pioneer Sarah Hendrickson blew out her right knee.
The latter has created another kind of setback for the Olympian’s comeback: the face of American women’s ski jumping isn’t being funded by her country as she prepares for the 2018 Games.
Hendrickson has multiple top-10 finishes and remains the United States’ top women’s ski jumper, but Hendrickson does not qualify for funding from U.S. Ski and Snowboard because she hasn’t performed well enough since her injury.
“It seems a little harsh, especially in an Olympic year,” Hendrickson said this week. “… I’m a very realistic person. Since I didn’t meet the requirements, I shouldn’t get the funding. But it doesn’t make it any less difficult to try to fund yourself during an Olympic year.”
It doesn’t make things any less frustrating for U.S. Ski officials either.
The organization prides itself on its fundraising successes but estimates it still comes some $2 million short of fully funding its athletes. That gap caused U.S. Ski and Snowboard leaders to change its funding process for teams and athletes around 2010. In the case of ski jumping, performances would dictate whether checks would be cut.
Hendrickson needed two top-five World Cup finishes. Her best performances were an eighth- and a ninth-place finish.
“The cost of doing all of the programs is far greater than we can handle,” said Tom Kelly, U.S. Ski and Snowboard’s vice president of communications. “So you have to make business decisions. It’s really frustrating to do that.”
Especially when you’re talking about an Olympic pioneer.
About Sarah Hendrickson<br>Hometown • Park City<br>Age • 23<br>Career highlights • 2014 Olympian in Sochi, Russia, 21st place; 2013 World Champion;2012 inaugural World Cup circuit champion
Growing up in Utah, Hendrickson was a teen phenom on the hill, and she used her platform to fight for the inclusion of women’s ski jumping at the highest level. Hendrickson became the first woman to jump in the Olympics when the 2014 Games opened in Sochi, Russia. The Park City native has focused since on growing the sport — encouraging young girls to take it up, pushing for more women’s jumping events at the Olympics and fighting for wage equality on the World Cup scene. Despite all that, Hendrickson currently finds herself on the wrong side of the sports economic calculus.
“We’re definitely working on the development programs in the States,” she said. “Unfortunately even being the best American on the female side, I still have no funding. So I pay for everything myself.”
Hendrickson estimated that the season would cost $20,000 at minimum to cover equipment, hotels, plane tickets and facility fees as she progressed toward Olympic qualification. The skier has relied on sponsorships, family and her own savings to foot the bill.
“It’s definitely stressful having to pay for all that,” she said. “… You do what you can. I’m passionate about what I do and I believe in myself, so if that means investing money then that’s fine with me.”
U.S. Ski and Snowboard officials are looking at ways to help fund women’s ski jumping in the future. The organization started a new endowment program last year. Women’s Ski Jumping USA also tries to bridge some of the funding gaps, while paying for coaching and some travel expenses. Meanwhile, U.S. Nordic Sport, a separate organization led by five-time Olympian Billy Demong, has been in discussions about taking over the women’s ski jumping team (the group already oversees the United States’ men’s ski jumping and Nordic Combined teams), possibly in time for the start of the 2018 Olympics.
Either way, Hendrickson expects to be on the hill in Pyeongchang.
She has spent the past two years working her way back from injury, regaining strength and confidence in her surgically repaired right knee. She feels good enough to compete for a spot on the podium.
Good enough, then, to get funded once again.
“That,” Hendrickson said, “will determine next year for me.”