Bloudkova velikanka

Bloudkova velikanka (also: Rožman/Bloudkova velikanka, Old Bloudkova velikanka, Large Rožman/Bloudek Hill) is a large ski jumping hill in Planica, Slovenia, opened in 1934 by Joso Gorec's initiative.[1] The hill was originally constructed by Ivan Rožman who invented the so-called "snow cement".[2] The hill was originally named after Stanko Bloudek, but was renamed to Rožman/Bloudkova velikanka posthumously to honour Rožman. A year after opening, Bloudek became the main constructor, improving the hill until his death. In 1936, Sepp Bradl became the first man in history to jump over 100 metres (330 ft). Hill's axis and name are under national monument protection and cannot be changed. After almost a decade of inactivity, the hill was completely renovated and reopened in 2012. Right next to this one they built a brand new normal hill to replace the old demolished one.

Bloudkova velikanka
Bloudkova velikanka (on the right)
Constructor(s)	Ivan Rožman (original) Stanko Bloudek (developer) Klemen Kobal (new hill)
Location	Planica, Slovenia
Operator	ZŠRS Planica
Opened	4 February 1934 (old hill) 14 October 2012 (new hill)
Renovated	1936, 1937, 1948, 1951–1954, 2011–2012
Closed	1942–1946, 1951–1953, 2001–2011
Demolished	2011 (old hill)
Size
K–point	125 metres (410 ft)
Hill size	138 metres (453 ft)
Longest jump (unofficial / fall)	149 metres (489 ft) Anže Lanišek
Hill record	142 metres (466 ft) Peter Prevc
Top events
World Cup	1980–1984, 1986, 1988–1990, 1992–1993, 1995, 1998, 2014
Grand Prix	2017

Normal Hill
Constructor(s)	Klemen Kobal
Opened	14 October 2012
Size
K–point	95 m
Hill size	102 m
Longest jump (unofficial / fall)	106 m (466 ft) Dejan Judež
Top events
World Cup	2014

History

Old hill (1932–2011)

Stanko Bloudek

Old hill in 1963

In 1932, Joso Gorec, a key figure for the beginning of ski jumping in Planica, asked engineer Stanko Bloudek to construct a large hill. Bloudek drew plans for the K-80 hill, as the International Ski Federation did not allow any bigger hills at the time. Bloudek decided on the location and staked out the hill. However, at the same time, Ivan Rožman, a construction company owner and engineer drew plans for the K-90 hill. Gorec decided to build the bigger hill using Rožman's plans instead of Bloudek's plans, who was then left out.

Starting the construction brought up some problems, as the local population from Rateče opposed to building the venue and did not want to sell the land where the hill was supposed to be situated on. They were eventually convinced and the construction lasted from October to December 1933.

On 4 February 1934 the hill, named the "Bloudkova velikanka" (Slovenian: Velika Rožman/Bloudkova skakalnica), was opened with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia National Championships. The winner was Franc Palme; with 55 and 60 m (180 and 197 ft), he set the first two hill records and the national record at the same time. In March they organized the first international competition when Birger Ruud set the first world record in Planica with 92 metres (302 ft).[3] Later, his brother Sigmund Ruud touched the ground at 94 metres, a world record distance.

In 1935, Bloudek took control over the hill as a constructor. From here he was the main engineer for renovating and enlarging the hill until his death.

The same year Rožman stepped out as an engineer in Planica, starting the argument on who was the original constructor and why the hill was not named after him. Rožman blamed Joso Gorec, who turned to Bloudek's side and named the hill after him, although Bloudek did not draw the original plans. For years, there was a public misconception that Bloudek was the original hill constructor while the original constructor was Ivan Rožman.

On 15 March 1936, Sepp Bradl became the first man in history to have officially jumped over one hundred metres, landing at 101.5 metres (333 ft) which had to be displayed as 101 metres on the scoreboard due to lack of space. Two years later, Bradl again set a new world record with 107 m (351 ft).

In 1939, Bloudek constructed the first simple 300-metre-long funicular with two parallel routes on a scree in Planica. It was on a scree on a way from Planica to Tamar Valley. As a result, Sigmund Ruud gave the hill name "Mammoth Hill" in his book Skispuren kruezen die Welt which was published in 1939.

In 1954, the hill was renovated as they built a new judging and television tower and a new profile of the hill. The hill was reopened and back in use for the Planica's Ski Flying week in March 1954.

In 1980, Bloudkova velikanka hosted the first FIS Ski Jumping World Cup event. The hill became a standard and regular host of World Cup events, exchanging with the ski flying hill Letalnica bratov Gorišek and normal hill up to 1998 when it stopped for a longer period of time. After that all events were held at the ski flying hill.

Reconstructed hill in 2014

The hill was in use until 16 December 2001 when the upper part of concrete bows collapsed. In the same year, the last international competition on the old hill was held. For many years after the hill collapsed there were plans to renovate the hill. A decade later, in July 2011, they demolished inrun, judge tower and TV tower, but left "German tower" which is part of Slovenian culture heritage. The last construction point of the old hill was at K130 and the last hill size at HS 140.

Reconstruction and a new hill

As the Republic of Slovenia and the Planica Nordic Center signed a contract for complete renovation of the ski jumping hills, the renovation finally began. At the same location where the original large hill was standing, which is also part of Slovenian culture heritage, they rebuilt the hill at the hill size of 139 metres with the new profile, new inrun, and new judge and TV towers. Just next to the large hill they built a new normal hill with the hill size at 104 metres. Both hills were designed by the team of Slovenian architects Matej Blenkuš, Miloš Florijančič and Klemen Kobal. The hills were opened on 14 October 2012 with the national championships.

The first person who jumped on a new HS 139 hill was Slovenian V-jumper Aleš Hlebanja from Rateče. He got this honour because his grandmother was the first of many owners who sold private property around the hill to the Republic of Slovenia and activate other owners to do the same. Primož Peterka was honoured to jump as first on a new HS 104 hill.[4] In 2014, they organized the World Cup events for the first time since 1998.

Competitions

Men

«...Fourth on the start was Gering. He was flying and flying high
above the ground and landed in a perfect position. We all knew
something extraordinary happened. People responsible for
distance measuring didn't have numbers, they figured out little
later that he landed at 118 metres. When crowd enthusiasm
has finally calmed down after WR, Paul Schneidenbach was
next on turn landing at 101 metres, after him Hans Lahr landed
at 111 metres, then Paul Krauß at 112 metres and the last was
Franz Maier who crashed at 109 metres.»

—Jutro newspaper report about Rudi Gering WR at 118 metres.[5]

Year	Date	Hillsize	Event	Winner	Second	Third	Visitors
1934	4 February	K90	OP	Franc Palme	Bogo Šramel	Gregor Klančnik	2,500
	25 March	K90	INT	Birger Ruud	Sigmund Ruud	Gregor Höll	4,000
1935	17 March	K106	INT	Stanisław Marusarz	Antonín Bartoň	Marcel Reymond	12,000
1936	15 March	K106	INT	Josef Bradl	Gregor Höll	Rudolf Rieger	16,000
1938	16 March	K106	SFS	Josef Bradl	Hans Wiedemann	Walter Delle Karth	N/A
1940	10 March	K120	SFS	Gregor Höll	Josef Bradl	Gustl Berauer	6,000
1941	2 March	K120	SFS	Rudi Gering	Paul Krauß	Hans Lahr	15,000
1947	24 March	K120	SFS	Rudi Finžgar	Charles Blum	Fritz Tschannen	25,000
1948	17 March	K120	ISFW	Fritz Tschannen	Hans Zurbriggen	Charles Blum	20,000
1950	15–17 March	K120	ISFS	Janez Polda	Rudi Finžgar	Sverre Kronvold	50,000
	19 March	K120	EXH	Rudi Finžgar	Slattsveen	Janez Polda
1954	13–14 March	K120	ISFW	Ossi Laaksonen	Jack Alfredsen	Hemmo Silvennoinen	23,000
1957	9–10 March	K120	ISFW	Helmut Recknagel	Eino Kirjonen	Pekka Tirkkonen	30,000
1960	25–27 March	K120	ISFW	Helmut Recknagel	Arne Larsen	Raimo Vitikainen	60,000
1963	22–24 March	K120	KOP	Dieter Bokeloh	Dietmar Klemm	Veit Kührt	40,000
1966	25–27 March	K120	ISFW	Jiří Raška	Mihail Veretennikov	Dieter Neuendorf	50,000
1968	24 March	K120	JPM.3	Jiří Raška	Josef Matouš	Willi Schuster	20,000
1973	25 March	K120	JPM.6	Walter Steiner	Heinz Wosipiwo	Josef Matouš	20,000
1975	12 April	K120	KCUP	Toni Innauer	Rudi Wanner	Janez Loštrek	15,000
	13 April	K120	JPM.7	Willi Pürstl	Bogdan Norčič	Rudi Wanner
1976	20 March	K120	KCUP	Hans Wallner	Bogdan Norčič	Peter Leitner	25,000
	21 March	K120	JPM.8	interrupted; weather conditions
1978	19 March	K120	JPM.9	Reinhold Bachler	Bogdan Norčič	Marko Mlakar	8,000
1980	22 March	K120	WC	Hubert Neuper	Armin Kogler	Hans Millonig	10,000
1981	22 March	K120	WC	Dag Holmen-Jensen	Armin Kogler	Alfred Groyer	30,000
1982	28 March	K120	WC	Ole Bremseth	Hubert Neuper	Massimo Rigoni	25,000
1983	27 March	K120	WC	Primož Ulaga	Horst Bulau	Richard Schallert	10,000
1984	25 March	K120	WC	Pavel Ploc	Vegard Opaas	Piotr Fijas	25,000
1986	23 March	K120	WC	Ernst Vettori	Andreas Felder	Matti Nykänen	30,000
1988	27 March	K120	WC	Primož Ulaga	Rajko Lotrič	Didier Mollard	40,000
1989	26 March	K120	WC	Jens Weißflog	Kent Johanssen	Andreas Felder	20,000
1990	24 March	K120	WC	Roberto Cecon	Ari-Pekka Nikkola	Jens Weißflog	25,000
	25 March	K120	WC	Ari-Pekka Nikkola	Dieter Thoma	Primož Ulaga
1992	28 March	K120	WC Team event	Austria	Germany	Finland	18,000
	29 March	K120	WC	Andreas Felder	Heinz Kuttin	Toni Nieminen
1993	27 March	K120	WC Team event	Japan	Norway	Slovenia	25,000
	28 March	K120	WC	Espen Bredesen	Andreas Felder	Christof Duffner
	12 December	K120	WC	Jens Weißflog	Andreas Goldberger	Espen Bredesen	N/A
1995	9 December	K120	WC Team event	Finland	Japan	Norway	7,000
	10 December	K120	WC	Mika Laitinen	Roar Ljøkelsøy	Janne Ahonen
1996	24 March	K120	EXH	Primož Peterka	Andreas Goldberger	Samo Gostiša	15,000
1998	21 March	K120	WC	Kazuyoshi Funaki	Primož Peterka	Hiroya Saito	56,000
	22 March	K120	WC	Noriaki Kasai	Hiroya Saito	Martin Höllwarth
2014	21 March	HS139	WC	Severin Freund	Anders Bardal	Peter Prevc	30,000
	22 March	HS139	WC Team event	Austria	Poland	Norway
	23 March	HS139	WC	Peter Prevc	Severin Freund	Anders Bardal

Ladies

Date	Hillsize	Competition	Winner	Second	Third
22 March 2014	HS139	WC	Sara Takanashi	Yuki Ito	Julia Clair

Normal hill events

Ladies

Date	Hillsize	Competition	Winner	Second	Third
25 January 2014	HS104	WC	Daniela Iraschko-Stolz	Sara Takanashi	Carina Vogt
26 January 2014	HS104	WC	Daniela Iraschko-Stolz	Sara Takanashi	Carina Vogt

Nordic combined

Men

Date	Competition	Winner	Second	Third
30 September 2017	SGP (HS139/10 km)	Magnus Hovdal Moan	Espen Andersen	Jan Schmid
1 October 2017	SGP (HS139/10 km)	Magnus Hovdal Moan	Jarl Magnus Riiber	Martin Fritz
22 September 2018	SGP (HS138/10 km)	Mario Seidl	Martin Fritz	Maxime Laheurte
23 September 2018	SGP (HS138/10 km)	Mario Seidl	Espen Bjørnstad	Aguri Shimizu
7 September 2019	SGP (HS138/10 km)	Jarl Magnus Riiber	Franz-Josef Rehrl	Bernhard Gruber
8 September 2019	SGP (HS138/10 km)	Jarl Magnus Riiber	Antoine Gérard	Jens Lurås Oftebro

World records

10 official world records were set: Lahr (111 m), Krauß (112 m) and Mair (109 m touch) were set after Gering's 118 metres WR.[5][6]

Date Athlete Length 25 March 1934 Birger Ruud 92 metres (302 ft) 14 March 1935 Reidar Andersen 93 metres (305 ft) 15 March 1935 Stanisław Marusarz 95 metres (312 ft) 15 March 1935 Reidar Andersen 98 metres (322 ft) 15 March 1935 Reidar Andersen 99 metres (325 ft)

Date Length 15 March 1936 Josef Bradl 101.5 metres (333 ft) 15 March 1938 Josef Bradl 107 metres (351 ft) 2 March 1941 Rudi Gering 108 metres (354 ft) 2 March 1941 Rudi Gering 118 metres (387 ft) 15 March 1948 Fritz Tschannen 120 metres (390 ft)

See also

• Letalnica bratov Gorišek
• Planica Nordic Centre
• Srednja Bloudkova

References

1. "Bloudkova velikanka" (in Slovenian). travel-slovenia.si. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
2. Enciklopedija Slovenije, 10. knjiga. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga. 1996.
3. "Birger Ruud: A family of ski jumpers". sports.jrank.org. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
4. Š. Ro, Ni. Č. (14 October 2012). "Nova Bloudkova velikanka: Peterka skočil 112 metrov" [New Bloudkova Velikanka: Peterka opened the hill and jumped 112 meters] (in Slovenian). Delo. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
5. "Novi svetovni rekordi v Planici, p.1" (in Slovenian). Jutro. 3 March 1941.
6. Da. B. (15 March 2016). "Kdo in kdaj je pod Poncami podrl rekord?" (in Slovenian). Zurnal24. Retrieved 24 January 2018.

External links

• Official website (in Slovene and English)
• Planica Nordic Centre
• Planica 1934-2011: Podiums