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Olympic Ski Jumping Is So Dangerous The Athletes Are Trying To Be Jet-Lagged To Psych Themselves Up For It

REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

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Olympic ski jumping is such a dangerous sport that professional ski jumpers are purposely trying to stay jet-lagged so they will be psyched for competition in Pyeongchang, South Korea, reported the Wall Street Journal Wednesday.

Some ski-jumpers are taking an unconventional approach to ease their nerves ahead by purposely trying to stay jet-lagged ahead of their first competition at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games Saturday, reported the Wall Street Journal. Many other athletes arrived in South Korea early, however, to better acclimate to the time zone change since it is 14 hours from the eastern time zone, some of the professional ski-jumpers from Team USA stayed behind, arriving Tuesday after another competition in Germany last Sunday.

For a sport like ski-jumping, having your head in the clouds can apparently help you feel more relaxed before the competition. “Mentally, it feels like suicide,” said Jeff Hastings, a ski jumper from the 1984 Olympics, adding that it’s “The closer you come to committing suicide without committing suicide, the better you’re going to be.”

“You let muscle memory take over,” said Kevin Bickner from Team USA, adding. “And sometimes that’s better than thinking about what you need to do.”

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The Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics will begin Friday.

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