Lindsey Van
Lindsey Van began ski jumping when she was just seven years old. At the
time she was one of the top downhill ski racers in Park City. She abandoned
ski racing after her passion for ski jumping was ignited the first
time she went off of a jump.
At thirteen Lindsey learned that the 2002 Winter Olympic
Games were coming to Salt Lake City, Utah – her hometown.
She was determined to see ski jumping incorporate a division
for women, but while skeleton and bobsledding added a women’s
division, ski jumping did not.
Lindsey is currently the United States’ women’s
ski jumping champion on both the K90 and K120 hills. She
is currently ranked number two in the world. In March Lindsey
set the North American distance record for women by jumping
an impressive 171 meters on a ski flying hill in Vikersund,
Norway.
Lindsey is nineteen years old and still resides in Park
City, Utah. She attends the University of Utah in the summer
and fall so that she can ski jump full time
in the winter.
Jessica Jerome
A native of Jacksonville, Florida, Jessica Jerome tried
ski jumping for the first time soon after her family moved
to Park City, Utah when she was seven years old. Jessica
is seventeen and a senior at Park City High School. She
plans to attend the University of Utah in the fall of 2005
in order to be close enough to Park City to continue to
train on the ski jumps there. Jessica was an Olympic forerunner at the 2002 Olympic Games
in Salt Lake City along with Van. She was the women’s
national champion in 2002 and 2003. She is currently ranked
fourth in the world.
Anette Sagen
Known for her blunt honesty, Anette Sagen
stated in a live BBC interview that the only reason women
are discriminated against in the world of ski jumping is because
they "don't have a dick.” Anette
is a native of Norway, the country where ski jumping originated.
Currently she is the number one woman ski jumper in the
world.
Daniela Iraschko
Daniela Iraschko is a brash Austrian ski jumper who set the women’s
world record in 2002 by leaping 201 meters on the largest ski flying
hill in the world in Kulm, Austria. Daniela is known
for her constantly changing hair color and aggressive style on and off
the hill. She is currently ranked third in the world.
Alissa Johnson
Alissa is an aggressive ski jumper who decided to completely devote herself
to the sport of ski jumping at the age of fifteen (up until that point
she’d been divided between swimming and ski jumping). In 2003 she
tied Lindsey Van for second place on the K90 at the ski jumping national
competition. She then went on to help the United States women upset reigning
champs, Austria, in the team competition in Saalfelden, Austria.
Taylor Lyons
Taylor hails from the Central division in Minnesota. Her father was a
ski jumper and that is what inspired her to get involved in the sport.
She traditionally trains with her cousin. Taylor traveled with the U.S.
women to Germany and Austria to compete on the FIS Grand Prix Women’s
Tour in 2003.
All text by
Ruth Gregory, 2004.
For more information on female ski jumpers
please visit: www.womensskijumpingusa.com |
|
 |
Ruth Gregory
Director
Producer
Camera
|
Somewhere in between watching Crocodile
Dundee III for the fifth time and almost getting run over by an executive
in a golf cart on the Paramount lot in Hollywood, California,
Ruth Gregory decided that the Hollywood studio system might
not be for her. A native of Whidbey Island, Washington, Gregory
made her first documentary about the Kent State University
shootings when she was just sixteen years old. She has been
involved in some form of filmmaking
ever since.
As a collegiate soccer player and swimmer, Gregory always
felt that the experience of being a female athlete was different
than that of the glorified tales of masculine competitors.
'Jump like a Girl' represents Gregory’s attempt
to articulate the experience of women in sport through the
microcosm of female ski jumpers Lindsey Van and Jessica Jerome.
A graduate of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington
(BA) and Ohio University (MFA), Gregory currently resides
in Seattle, Washington.
 |
Jessica Mathews
Editor
Camera
Location Sound |
Jessica Mathews met up with Ruth Gregory when the two were
assigned to be housemates during their graduate school years
at Ohio University. A native of Salt Lake City, Utah, Mathews
decided to devote her life to filmmaking when, after her
first year in the history program at the University of Utah,
she realized that the only history course she had enjoyed
was her History of Film class. Mathews received her BA from the University of Utah in
2001 and her MFA from Ohio University in 2004. Gregory highly
recommends her skills as an editor to anyone who is willing
to pay a person’s salary in waffles.
 |
Jeremy Mathews
Post Production Sound Engineer
Camera
|
Jeremy Mathews is a well known movie critic in his hometown of Salt Lake City, Utah. He is the former editor of the popular entertainment centered RED Magazine. RED used to be a part of The Daily Utah Chronicle, but was dropped for unknown reasons. He has since tried to keep the magazine alive on the web at www.red-mag.com.
An avid film connoisseur, Mathews sides with Buster Keaton when asked who was the greatest film comedian of all time. He also staunchly believes that Fatty Arbuckle did not do it no matter how many volumes of Hollywood Babylon says he did.
Dominika Dittwald
Camera
A native of Poland, Dominika has become keenly interested in women’s
ski jumping since helping to film Van’s graduation from high school
in 2003. Dittwald even went as far as to help Women’s Ski Jumping
USA to locate female ski jumpers in her native country.
Dittwad graduated from the University of Toronto in 2001
with her BA in Philosophy. She hopes to finish her MFA
in film at Ohio University late in 2004 and return to
the Toronto area to make films and teach.
 |
Brady Meeds
(DJ Twilight)
Composer
|
Brady Meeds and Ruth Gregory
met at the Columbus airport. Meeds was the then night manager
for the Cup O’ Joe
and Gregory always seemed to have bad luck with volunteering
to pick people up whose flights would inevitably get
delayed. On one of the ill-fated trips Meeds handed Gregory
a copy of one of his CDs and the rest is history. Check out his work
at www.anocturnaltransmission.com
 |
Janean Parker
Webmaster
Graphic Designer
|
Janean Parker lived out her childhood dream
to ride in a hot air balloon when she attended the first ever International
Ladies Ski Jumping Festival in Park City, Utah on July 24, 2004.
A freelance web designer, Parker also upkeeps the Red
Magazine website.
You may view her sadly outdated porfolio here.
Parker is a graduate of Weber State University. She also owns a cool
condominium that Gregory hopes to emulate someday when she finally
grows up. |
