The 45th Men’s Ski Jumping World Cup is scheduled to start on Saturday, November 25, at the Rukatunturi ski jumping hill in Finland. Before the competitors start the competition, it is worth recalling some information about what ski jumping and… mining have in common.
Within the borders of today’s Poland there are a number of towns where hard coal, rock salt and iron ore were mined, and where ski jumping hills operated for some time. These include, for example, Wieliczka, Jastrzębie Zdrój, Boguszów Gorce, Wałbrzych and Kowary.
In the latter city, where fluorite, iron ore and uranium ore were mined in the past, before World War II there was a ski jumping hill in the Podgórze district called Bergfreiheitschanze. It can be translated as the Freedom Mine Jump. After the war, the ski jump ceased to exist, and Podgórze in Kowary was a place of intensive uranium ore exploitation for several years. Ski jumping has been practiced for many years in Karpacz, neighboring Kowary, where the local ski jump serves as a viewing point.
Next to the mining town of Wałbrzych, there is the health resort of Szczawno Zdrój, which for some time had a complex of three small ski jumps on its territory. The place where jumping was practiced was Gediminas Hill, located on the southern outskirts of the city. The local ski jumping hill was built during German times. After World War II, jumps were performed there, but the facility required reconstruction due to the passage of time. In 1968, the ski jump was rebuilt by members of the ski section of the Górnik Wałbrzych Sports Club under the leadership of coach Józef Pawlik. This ski jumping hill was also destroyed, just like the jumping facilities in Kowary and Jastrzębie Zdrój.
Thanks to the support of KWK Grodziec, after World War II, a makeshift ski jump was built on Góra Święta Dorota in Grodziec, which later became a district of Będzin. The mine provided construction materials, and the initiator of the construction was the ski section of the Górnik Grodziec sports club. The first competition was held there in 1951, and the winner achieved a distance of 25 meters. Also the ski jumping hill in Grodziec did not stand the test of time.
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