An unusual accident of a Polish jumper in Zakopane. It’s a miracle he landed
During one of the training sessions on Wielka Krokiew in Zakopane, an extremely dangerous event occurred. During Jakub Niemczyk’s flight, a large bird hit him. His colleague Wiktor Pękala and Sławomir Hankus, the coach of SMS Szczyrk, told about the incident. It’s a miracle nothing happened to him.
The frequent identification of ski jumpers with the names of birds is not accidental. Thomas Thurnbichler’s players are called “Eagles”, which also comes from, among others, with national affiliation and the emblem of Poland. In turn, Adam Małysz had the nickname “Orzeł z Wisły” for many years. As it turns out, birds also stay on ski jumps, and sometimes even larger ones. One of them visited Wielka Krokiew in Zakopane, but he was there at a bad time.
A shocking incident on Wielka Krokiew. The jumper collided with a bird during flight
TVP Sport reported the whole situation. It happened during one of the young jumpers’ training sessions. SMS Szczyrk coach Sławomir Hankus said that everything looked very dangerous and in his opinion it was a real miracle that nothing bad happened to the jumper. There was a large bird on the hill that took off at the worst possible moment.
– We were with our young players at the training camp in Zakopane. Kuba Niemczyk was already sitting on the beam, Robert Mateja let him go, and at that moment a larger bird sat on the landing pad – at about 90 meters. When Kuba flew over him, the bird took off and hit the jumper in the face – said the trainer.
Another ski jumper, Wiktor Pękala, was an eyewitness to the entire event. He confessed that the bird was sitting firmly on the right side of the landing area, looking from the competitor’s perspective. – It could have been a buzzard. It was a really big bird. Kuba usually flies straight. That jump went well on the threshold, but immediately after the take-off it rocked him quite a bit and pulled him to the right side of the landing area. He flew… directly above the bird, which scared the animal, said the young pilot. Fortunately, the 16-year-old was unharmed and managed to land safely.
