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 article refutes the common explanation of ski jumping lift based on classic airfoil theory and the Bernoulli principle, arguing it's incorrect because ski jumpers lack the necessary wingspan for two-dimensional airflow.
Ski jumpers primarily generate lift through impact pressure on their underside, with flow separating from the top surface, and significant contribution from their V-shaped skis, resulting in lift and drag being roughly equal.
Innovations introduced by ski jumpers themselves, such as the V-stance, have been more crucial to increasing flight distances than scientific modeling, illustrating that "lift" encompasses diverse aerodynamic mechanisms beyond the conventional airfoil model.

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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.