Ski jumping and Nordic combined are the earliest known forms of formal ski competition. The first known staged competition was a Nordic combined event held in the late 1870s in Telemark, Norway, under the supervision of Sondre Norheim. In 1892, Holmenkollen, Norway, staged the first of 106 Nordic combined annual events. In 1902, organizers added a 50-km cross-country ski race and, in 1933, a special jumping class was added. Ski jumping and Nordic combined have been on the Olympic schedule since the I Olympic Games Chamonix-Mt. Blanc in 1924. Demonstrating their strong fighting spirit, the Norwegians won every gold medal and five bronze medals in the Olympic Winter Games from 1924 to 1952.

One of the most popular spectator sports, ski jumping has evolved dramatically over the years. In the late 1980s, Jan Boklöv, an innovative Swedish ski jumper, revolutionized modern ski jumping with his “V” technique. This new, aerodynamically superior technique enables ski jumpers to fly much greater distances with more control and safety.

The new V-style technique allow today's athletes to prolong their time in the air, enabling them to clear more than 240 metres in distance on the large “ski-flying” hills. Spectator numbers at the more popular World Cup events commonly exceed 40,000, and have been known to exceed 80,000.

Since the 1964 Innsbruck Winter Games, the smaller hill event (formerly named the 70m, but renamed in the late 1990s to K90m to reflect the critical point or “K” point on the landing hill) has been added to the program. For the 2010 Winter Games, the hill will be classified as HS 125 to identify the longest jumps that should occur routinely on this size of hill.

While ski jumping has been part of the Olympic Winter Games since the first Games in 1924, it has only been for men. No Olympic ski jumping events are available for women; however, they do compete in events such as the Continental Cup, which began in 2004, and the World Junior Championships, which started in 2006.