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Parkite Lindsey Van is among the 2025 Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame inductees

Van helped put women’s ski jumping on the map — and into the 2014 Olympics.

FILE - In this Oct. 1, 2013, file photo, ski-jumper Lindsey Van speaks with reporters during a news conference at the U.S. Olympic Committee media summit in Park City, Utah. Women ski jumpers at the Pyeongchang Olympics are permitted to compete in one event, the normal hill, the men get three: the normal hill, the large hill and a team event. "It's like, 'Here, we'll give you a little piece,' and then, 'Go away, leave us alone,'" says Van, the now-retired American ski jumper who helped lead a discrimination lawsuit to get women jumpers into the Games. "I still think that it's an old boys' club." (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

The U.S. National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame announced the Class of 2025 inductees Tuesday in Park City, and ski jumper Lindsey Van is among them. The 40-year-old Parkite is being recognized for more than her accomplishments on the hill, but for her tireless advocacy.

Van helped put women’s ski jumping on the map — and into the 2014 Olympics.

She started ski jumping at just seven years old. Originally starting in a ski-racing program in Park City, Van said she kept looking for jumps as she liked the adrenaline and flying in the air.

“Ski racing, it was about the speed, but I really liked catching air,” she said. “I just wanted to keep going farther and farther and bigger and bigger on the jumps.”

Around 1990, a ski jump was built at the Utah Olympic Park for Salt Lake City’s 1998 Olympic bid. So, Van started jumping.

Read the full story at kpcw.org.

This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aim to inform readers across the state