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Hakuba Students Check Out the Ski Jumping Action (February 19)
On February 15, we headed to the Hakuba ski jumping stadium to watch the large-hill event. The stands were packed with people there to cheer for the competitors from around the world. The crowd all cheered together, doing the wave.The cheering was especially loud for the Japanese jumpers, and it must have helped them--Kazuyoshi Funaki won the gold medal and Masahiko Harada took the bronze! It felt really amazing to be there cheering along with 50,000 people as Funaki showed his perfect V-style form and Harada jumped a hill-record 136 meters.
Students were there from many elementary and middle schools to cheer for the jumpers in different ways. A group of us from Hakuba Middle School was there, spelling out cheers in "human letters." By holding up colored panels, we formed the names of the Japanese jumpers and the flags of some of the countries participating that day. We were worried about how the shapes would look, but when we formed the Norwegian flag the fans from Norway were very happy. We even made it into the local newspapers for our human letters! (Report from Hakuba Middle School: Tai, Udajiri)
The Hakuba Ski Jumping Hill
Hakuba Middle School students cheer the jumpers on.