A year earlier, Olav Ulland had crossed the 100 m barrier in Ponte di Legno, Italy, but touched the snow with his hands, which rendered his jump – and world record – unofficial.

[6][nb 1]In the early 1930s, prior to the construction of Bloudkova velikanka, the FIS had deemed ski jumping hills with a K-point (German: Konstruktionspunkt) of 70 m (230 ft) to be the absolute largest permissible.

[7][8] Despite this reluctant recognition, the FIS still frowned upon the practice of aiming predominantly for long distances over style, and presently refuses to publish lists of world records in an official capacity.

This was the brainchild of Slovenian brothers Janez and Vlado Gorišek, both engineers, who opted to design a new hill with a K-point of 153 m (502 ft) instead of enlarging the adjacent Bloudkova velikanka, which was showing signs of deterioration.

At the opening event of Velikanka bratov Gorišek, five world records were set: Bjørn Wirkola and Jiří Raška traded it among themselves four times, until Manfred Wolf ended their run with a jump of 165 m (541 ft).

Elsewhere, in the Western Hemisphere, the United States opened its own ski flying venue in 1970: Copper Peak in Ironwood, Michigan, had a K-point of 145 m, therefore not designed for world record distances from the outset.

With the event cancelled, Goldberger's efforts from earlier were enough to earn him a silver medal behind eventual winner Noriaki Kasai, who became the first non-European Ski Flying World Champion.

Akimoto, Findeisen, Berg and Goldberger's accidents were all caused by unpredictable gusts of wind that made them lose control at the highest and fastest stage of their jumps, exacerbated by an outdated technique ill-suited to the new extremes of ski flying, as well as the prevalence of older hills featuring very steep slopes.

Nevertheless, within a few years, with Boklöv having won the 1988/89 Ski Jumping World Cup season and other athletes promptly adopting the technique, the judges' stance quietly eased and the V-style became the ubiquitous standard still used today.

Andreas Goldberger became the first ski jumper in history to cross the 200 m barrier when he landed at 202 m (663 ft) but failed to maintain his balance as he squatted down and touched the snow with his hands, rendering his jump an unofficial world record.

This handed Jaroslav Sakala (with a jump of 185 m) the Ski Flying World Championship at the end of the event, which was shortened to only a single competition round due to strong winds forcing cancellation of the other.

In Planica the hill was reprofiled again in 1997, and the world record was broken a further four times in the remainder of the decade, culminating with Tommy Ingebrigtsen jumping 219.5 m (720 ft) in 1999 to send ski flying into the new millennium.

"[58][nb 6] Despite improvements in safety since the 1990s, Planica still saw several violent accidents occur in consecutive years: Valery Kobelev (1999), Takanobu Okabe (2000), Robert Kranjec (2001) and Tomasz Pochwała (2002) all crashed at the top of the knoll due to sudden losses of ski pressure.

Commentating for Finnish broadcaster MTV3, former world record holder Toni Nieminen remarked forebodingly after Romøren's jump that "the landing area is now practically completely flat ground.

"[64][nb 7] Some minutes later, Janne Ahonen went for broke when he caught a massive thermal updraft and stretched out a jump of 240 m (790 ft), only to fall from a dangerous height and slam down hard onto near-flat ground; his world record was rendered unofficial.

[68][nb 11]In the aftermath of the Planica event and following numerous near-flat ground landings, it became clear that ski flying had once again outgrown an older hill and needed enlarging in the years to come.

[72] Another K-point modification in Vikersund (this time to 200 m)[73] resulted in the coveted 250 m barrier being reached in 2015, with Peter Prevc landing a clean jump right on the mark to claim another historic milestone in the sport.

[88]Although his achievement initially came under scrutiny, as it appeared that he touched the snow with his backside as he was forced to squat down on essentially flat ground,[89][88] slow-motion replay confirmed that his landing was valid with only millimetres to spare.

[90] A week later, Planica caught up to Vikersund with a plethora of more personal bests, and three athletes – including Kraft, twice – landing jumps of, or beyond, 250 m. Kamil Stoch would set a hill record of 251.5 m, with the season finale competition drawing an attendance of 16,500.

[nb 18] Since the late 1980s, when the V-style began enabling jumps dangerously close to flat ground, the full length of a ski flying inrun has never been used due to safety reasons.

[nb 20] Near the top of the inrun, an athlete sits on a start gate – a metal or wooden beam – and awaits their signal to jump via a set of traffic lights (green, amber, and red).

[134] Weather conditions must be optimal in order to jump competitively and safely, therefore they are actively monitored by the jury, who continuously collaborate with the race directors in making decisions on how an event will progress.

The athlete's streamlined crouch minimises air resistance along the inrun,[141] whilst a further effort is made to reduce friction by not allowing the skis to bump too much against the sides of the tracks, as well as wax being applied beforehand.

[41][144] At this instant the skis are opened up into a horizontal "V" shape, legs straightened and spread apart, and arms held backwards as the athlete adopts their own unique flying position and enters the transition, all in one fluid motion.

[161][162] Skilful use of headwind and thermal updrafts along various sections of the hill is used to generate additional lift, creating pressure under the oversized skis and enabling athletes to effectively ride on a 'cushion of air'.

[177] If enough jumps exceed 95% of the hill size – the zone where the slope begins to flatten out – an immediate discussion is held between the jury and race director, which usually results in the start gate being lowered so as to reduce inrun speeds and therefore distances.

[201] Also in Kulm, Eva Ganster set an unprecedented six world records for women (an amount since unmatched by any woman or man) in a span of five days in 1997, bringing her personal best to a final figure of 167 m (548 ft).

In 2004, four female athletes – Anette Sagen, Helena Olsson Smeby, Line Jahr, and Lindsey Van – were invited to perform test jumps prior to the men's 2004 Continental Cup event in Vikersund.

However, this was initially blocked by Torbjørn Yggeseth, founder of the World Cup and a member of the FIS technical committee at the time, on the grounds that it was too dangerous to allow women on ski flying hills.

Jessica Jerome, Lundby and Hendrickson were disappointed with the decision, whilst Bertil Pålsrud (a member of the FIS equipment committee) said he was confident of Vikersund staging a ski flying event for women in 2023.