The longest ski jump in history

Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi flew 291 meters in Iceland on Wednesday 24th April 2024 for an unofficial world record touted by organizer Red Bull as "the longest ski jump in history."

The 2022 Beijing Olympics individual normal hill gold medalist took off on a special hill set up on a slope in Akureyri before landing safely on the snow. 
A culmination of two grueling days of attempts, the feat set a new world record for longest ski jump. And while the spectacular setting evoked the roots of the sport, the distance rocketed ski jumping to new heights, smashing the previous record by a remarkable 37.5m.

After a two-year search, the ideal site was discovered in Hlidarfjall Akureyri in northern Iceland. There, exclusively for the attempt, Kobayashi’s team devoted over two months to sculpting a snow ski jump table on the natural terrain that is 1,115 meters high at the start, descending across an altitude difference of 360 meters with a maximum gradient of 36 degrees. The athlete reached a top speed of 107km/h at takeoff, and his time suspended in air was 8 seconds.

Ryoyu Kobayashi, who came second in the overall World Cup last winter behind Stefan Kraft from Salzburg, tested the limits of ski flying in Iceland. On Wednesday, the Japanese flew 291 m from the facility built on a mountain on a makeshift ski jump. The distance set is 37.5 m above Kraft’s world record.

See the jump on YouTube here