Flight Without Wings: Lift Comes in Many Forms

Olympic ski jumpers are all tip and no wing, so how do they do it?

Peter Garrison

Wednesday, May 20, 2026 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

Flight time may possibly be more affected by the rate at which ski jumpers slow down than by the rate at which they lose height. [Credit: U.S. Ski & Snowboard]

Key Takeaways:

The classic Bernoulli-principle explanation of lift, often used for airplane wings, is inappropriate for ski jumpers due to their lack of wingspan and predominantly three-dimensional airflow.
Ski jumpers generate lift primarily through impact pressure on their underside and the effective span created by their V-shaped skis, slowing their descent and extending flight distances, often through innovative stances.
The article emphasizes that "lift" encompasses diverse aerodynamic phenomena beyond the classic airfoil model, suggesting that drag may be as crucial as lift for ski jumper performance.

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NBC accompanied its coverage of the ski jumping events at the Winter Olympics with a graphic showing, in profile view, a schematic ski jumper prone over their skis, with a row of bold arrows marching along a curved path above them and a second row passing in a straight line below.

It was the classic explanation of an airfoil—curved top, flat bottom, air goes faster over the top, Bernoulli, etc. It might have been cribbed from a high school physics textbook.