The thrill of Victory

This last weekend was the 108th running of the Norge International Ski Jumping Championships, the oldest continueous ski jumping competition in the world.  It's held about 15 minutes from my house.  This is probably the single most anticipated event of the year for me and my camera.  It's totally family friendly, you see alot of crazy people, and you get to witness an incredible sport live.  It looks pretty cool on TV and even better in person.  These guys(and gals) are nuts.  The first day of the event is for the juniors, 4 years old and up to I'm not sure.  But, Sunday is for the big people, but even then, I swear the jumpers are only 14 years old or so.  I think most are in the early 20's.  I heard the announcer call one of the jumpers "the old man" and then he said his age was 28.  Of course, one of the big draws of the event is to witness the "beat down" in skiers terms.  This is went someone comes down but doesn't quite get their skis to land under them.  You always hope no one gets hurt and no one did, but there was a couple of  "beat downs".  Here's a few shots of some the activity. One is of, obviously, a winner.  Another is of, once again obviously, a beat down.  And another is of a guy enjoying his own kind of competition.  Check out the headgear for his sport.