Olympic Ski Jump

Kyiv, Ukraine

Demolished

The Disappointed Tourist: Olympic Ski Jump, Ellen Harvey, 2021. Oil and acrylic on Gessoboard, 24 x 18″ (61 x 46 cm). Photograph: Etienne Frossard.

The jump in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv located in a park next to the Olympic Stadium. But the most special with this jump is its in run tower which stands free and is just held by small cables – a worldwide unique con­struc­tion. Unfortunately, the hill used to be an example of the Soviet recklessness in economy and technics, because bridges with a similar construction can be used for a long time, the Kyiv hill was in a dangerous condition 25 years after the last big modernisation. Therefore this unique facility has been torn down in the summer of 2003 as it was in very bad state causing danger. It was a place from my childhood. There we used to go skipping classes at school in late 90th. It was already abandoned for that time. We used to take one of the brushes from which the cover of the tramplin is made of for better sliding in the summer period, and we slid down on it. Which was dangerous. Inga L.

The Olympic Ski Jump (Tramplin Olimpijskiy) in Kyiv (I still have to correct the spelling in the painting) was built in 1968 and demolished in 2003. The painting is based on an uncredited photograph from skisprungschanzen.com.