Bloudkova velikanka

Old hill (1932–2011)

Stanko Bloudek

Old hill in 1963

In 1932, Joso Gorec, a key figure for the beginning of ski jumping in Planica, asked engineer Stanko Bloudek to construct a large hill. Bloudek drew plans for the K-80 hill, as the International Ski Federation did not allow any bigger hills at the time. Bloudek decided on the location and staked out the hill. However, at the same time, Ivan Rožman, a construction company owner and engineer drew plans for the K-90 hill. Gorec decided to build the bigger hill using Rožman's plans instead of Bloudek's plans, who was then left out.

Starting the construction brought up some problems, as the local population from Rateče opposed to building the venue and did not want to sell the land where the hill was supposed to be situated on. They were eventually convinced and the construction lasted from October to December 1933.

On 4 February 1934 the hill, named the "Bloudkova velikanka" (Slovenian: Velika Rožman/Bloudkova skakalnica), was opened with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia National Championships. The winner was Franc Palme; with 55 and 60 m (180 and 197 ft), he set the first two hill records and the national record at the same time. In March they organized the first international competition when Birger Ruud set the first world record in Planica with 92 metres (302 ft).^[3] Later, his brother Sigmund Ruud touched the ground at 94 metres, a world record distance.

In 1935, Bloudek took control over the hill as a constructor. From here he was the main engineer for renovating and enlarging the hill until his death.

The same year Rožman stepped out as an engineer in Planica, starting the argument on who was the original constructor and why the hill was not named after him. Rožman blamed Joso Gorec, who turned to Bloudek's side and named the hill after him, although Bloudek did not draw the original plans. For years, there was a public misconception that Bloudek was the original hill constructor while the original constructor was Ivan Rožman.

On 15 March 1936, Sepp Bradl became the first man in history to have officially jumped over one hundred metres, landing at 101.5 metres (333 ft) which had to be displayed as 101 metres on the scoreboard due to lack of space. Two years later, Bradl again set a new world record with 107 m (351 ft).

In 1939, Bloudek constructed the first simple 300-metre-long funicular with two parallel routes on a scree in Planica. It was on a scree on a way from Planica to Tamar Valley. As a result, Sigmund Ruud gave the hill name "Mammoth Hill" in his book Skispuren kruezen die Welt which was published in 1939.

In 1954, the hill was renovated as they built a new judging and television tower and a new profile of the hill. The hill was reopened and back in use for the Planica's Ski Flying week in March 1954.

In 1980, Bloudkova velikanka hosted the first FIS Ski Jumping World Cup event. The hill became a standard and regular host of World Cup events, exchanging with the ski flying hill Letalnica bratov Gorišek and normal hill up to 1998 when it stopped for a longer period of time. After that all events were held at the ski flying hill.

Reconstructed hill in 2014

The hill was in use until 16 December 2001 when the upper part of concrete bows collapsed. In the same year, the last international competition on the old hill was held. For many years after the hill collapsed there were plans to renovate the hill. A decade later, in July 2011, they demolished inrun, judge tower and TV tower, but left "German tower" which is part of Slovenian culture heritage. The last construction point of the old hill was at K130 and the last hill size at HS 140.

Reconstruction and a new hill

As the Republic of Slovenia and the Planica Nordic Center signed a contract for complete renovation of the ski jumping hills, the renovation finally began. At the same location where the original large hill was standing, which is also part of Slovenian culture heritage, they rebuilt the hill at the hill size of 139 metres with the new profile, new inrun, and new judge and TV towers. Just next to the large hill they built a new normal hill with the hill size at 104 metres. Both hills were designed by the team of Slovenian architects Matej Blenkuš, Miloš Florijančič and Klemen Kobal. The hills were opened on 14 October 2012 with the national championships.

The first person who jumped on a new HS 139 hill was Slovenian V-jumper Aleš Hlebanja from Rateče. He got this honour because his grandmother was the first of many owners who sold private property around the hill to the Republic of Slovenia and activate other owners to do the same. Primož Peterka was honoured to jump as first on a new HS 104 hill.^[4] In 2014, they organized the World Cup events for the first time since 1998.

Men

Date	Hillsize	Competition	Winner	Second	Third
4 February 1934	K90	OP	Franc Palme	Bogo Šramel	Gregor Klančnik
23–26 March 1934	K90	INT	Birger Ruud	Sigmund Ruud	Gregor Höll
14–17 March 1935	K106	INT	Stanisław Marusarz	Antonín Bartoň	Marcel Reymond
10–15 March 1936	K106	INT	Sepp Bradl	Gregor Höll	Rudolf Rieger
14–15 March 1938	K106	SFS	Sepp Bradl	Hans Wiedemann	Walter Delle Karth
16–17 March 1940	K120	SFS	Sepp Bradl	Gustl Berauer	Paul Häckel
26 February - 2 March 1941	K120	SFS	Rudi Gering	Paul Krauß	Hans Lahr
17–24 March 1947	K120	SFS	Rudi Finžgar	Charles Blum	Fritz Tschannen
13–17 March 1948	K120	SFS	Fritz Tschannen	Jean Zurbriggen	Charles Blum
14–17 March 1950	K120	SFS	Janez Polda	Rudi Finžgar	Sverre Stenersen
13–14 March 1954	K120	INT	Ossi Laaksonen	Jack Alfredsen	Hemmo Silvennoinen
8–10 March 1957	K120	ISFW	Helmut Recknagel	Eino Kirjonen	Pekka Tirkkonen
25–27 March 1960	K120	ISFW	Helmut Recknagel	Arne Larsen	Raimo Vitikainen
22–24 March 1963	K120	KOP	Dieter Bokeloh	Dietmar Klemm	Veit Kührt
25–27 March 1966	K120	SFW	Jiří Raška	Mihail Veretennikov	Dieter Neuendorf
24 March 1968	K120	3rd JPM	Jiří Raška	Josef Matouš	Willi Schuster
23–24 March 1973	K120	6th JPM	Walter Steiner	Heinz Wosipiwo	Josef Matouš
12 April 1975	K120	KC	Toni Innauer	Rudi Wanner	Janez Loštrek
13 April 1975	K120	7th JPM	Willi Pürstl	Bogdan Norčič	Rudi Wanner
20 March 1976	K120	KC	Hans Wallner	Bogdan Norčič	Peter Leitner
21 March 1976	K120	8th JPM	interrupted and cancelled; weather conditions
19 March 1978	K120	9th JPM	Reinhold Bachler	Bogdan Norčič	Marko Mlakar
22 March 1980	K120	WC	Hubert Neuper	Armin Kogler	Hans Millonig
22 March 1981	K120	WC	Dag Holmen-Jensen	Armin Kogler	Alfred Groyer
28 March 1982	K120	WC	Ole Bremseth	Hubert Neuper	Massimo Rigoni
27 March 1983	K120	WC	Primož Ulaga	Horst Bulau	Richard Schallert
25 March 1984	K120	WC	Pavel Ploc	Vegard Opaas	Piotr Fijas
23 March 1986	K120	WC	Ernst Vettori	Andreas Felder	Matti Nykänen
27 March 1988	K120	WC	Primož Ulaga	Rajko Lotrič	Didier Mollard
26 March 1989	K120	WC	Jens Weißflog	Kent Johanssen	Andreas Felder
24 March 1990	K120	WC	Roberto Cecon	Ari-Pekka Nikkola	Jens Weißflog
25 March 1990	K120	WC	Ari-Pekka Nikkola	Dieter Thoma	Primož Ulaga
28 March 1992	K120	WC-T	Austria Andreas Felder Martin Höllwarth Werner Rathmayr Heinz Kuttin	Germany Christof Duffner Andreas Scherer Ralph Gebstedt Jens Weißflog	Finland Ari-Pekka Nikkola Toni Nieminen Raimo Ylipulli Risto Laakonen
29 March 1992	K120	WC	Andreas Felder	Heinz Kuttin	Toni Nieminen
27 March 1993	K120	WC-T	Japan Masahiko Harada Noriaki Kasai Takanobu Okabe Naoki Yasuzaki	Norway Roar Ljøkelsøy Bjørn Myrbakken Helge Brendryen Espen Bredesen	Slovenia Robert Meglič Matjaž Zupan Urban Franc Samo Gostiša
28 March 1993	K120	WC	Espen Bredesen	Andreas Felder	Christof Duffner
12 December 1993	K120	WC	Jens Weißflog	Andreas Goldberger	Espen Bredesen
9 December 1995	K120	WC-T	Finland Jani Soininen Mika Laitinen Ari-Pekka Nikkola Janne Ahonen	Japan Jinya Nishikata Kenji Suda Hiroya Saito Masahiko Harada	Norway Espen Bredesen Eirik Halvorsen Roar Ljøkelsøy Lasse Ottesen
10 December 1995	K120	WC	Mika Laitinen	Roar Ljøkelsøy	Janne Ahonen
24 March 1996	K120	IEX	Primož Peterka	Andreas Goldberger	Samo Gostiša
21 March 1998	K120	WC	Kazuyoshi Funaki	Primož Peterka	Hiroya Saito
22 March 1998	K120	WC	Noriaki Kasai	Hiroya Saito	Martin Höllwarth
21 March 2014	HS139	WC	Severin Freund	Anders Bardal	Peter Prevc
22 March 2014	HS139	WC-T	Austria Stefan Kraft Andreas Kofler Thomas Diethart Gregor Schlierenzauer	Poland Maciej Kot Piotr Żyła Klemens Muranka Kamil Stoch	Norway Andreas Stjernen Tom Hilde Anders Fannemel Anders Bardal
23 March 2014	HS139	WC	Peter Prevc	Severin Freund	Anders Bardal

Ladies

Date	Hillsize	Competition	Winner	Second	Third
22 March 2014	HS139	WC	Sara Takanashi	Yuki Ito	Julia Clair

Ladies

Date	Hillsize	Competition	Winner	Second	Third
25 January 2014	HS104	WC	Daniela Iraschko-Stolz	Sara Takanashi	Carina Vogt
26 January 2014	HS104	WC	Daniela Iraschko-Stolz	Sara Takanashi	Carina Vogt

Men

Date	Competition	Winner	Second	Third
30 September 2017	SGP (HS139/10 km)	Magnus Hovdal Moan	Espen Andersen	Jan Schmid
1 October 2017	SGP (HS139/10 km)	Magnus Hovdal Moan	Jarl Magnus Riiber	Martin Fritz
22 September 2018	SGP (HS138/10 km)	Mario Seidl	Martin Fritz	Maxime Laheurte
23 September 2018	SGP (HS138/10 km)	Mario Seidl	Espen Bjørnstad	Aguri Shimizu