what are gate points in ski jumping

Gate points in ski jumping are compensation points added to or subtracted from a jumper’s score when the start gate (inrun length) is changed during a competition.

Quick Scoop: What are gate points?

In ski jumping, athletes start from a “gate” partway up the inrun ramp. Moving this gate up or down makes the skier faster or slower, which can massively affect how far they fly. To keep things fair, officials use gate points so that jumpers aren’t unfairly helped or hurt just because the gate was changed for their attempt.

Why does the gate move?

The jury can change the starting gate during the event, mainly because of changing conditions.

Typical reasons:

• Strong headwind (which helps you fly farther) → they may lower the gate so jumpers start slower.

• Weak wind or tailwind (which makes long jumps harder) → they may raise the gate so jumpers get more speed.

So the physical starting position is adjusted for safety and fairness, and gate points mathematically “correct” the scores for that adjustment.

How gate points actually work

Here’s the core idea:

• Higher gate (more inrun, more speed, easier to jump far) → points are subtracted.

• Lower gate (less inrun, less speed, harder to jump far) → points are added.

The amount added or subtracted per gate step is defined by a “gate factor” for each hill, so every step up or down changes the score by a fixed number of points. This way, someone jumping from a much lower gate can still beat a longer-looking jump from a higher gate if their compensated score is better.

A simple example:

• Jumper A jumps from gate 12 and gets 130.0 points.
• Jumper B jumps from gate 10 (lower, harder), jumps slightly shorter, but gets +6.0 gate points and ends up at 131.5 points, and can still lead.

Where do gate points fit in the total score?

Modern ski jumping scores combine several ingredients:

• Distance points (how far you jump around the K-point or hill size).

• Style points from five judges (flight stability, body position, landing, etc.).

• Wind points (compensate for headwind or tailwind).

• Gate points (compensate when the inrun gate is adjusted).

All of these are added together for the final result, which is why the jumper who flies the farthest is not always the winner.

A quick “watching on TV” tip

When you watch a broadcast, you’ll often see separate lines or blocks for distance, style, wind, and gate in the on-screen graphics. Some broadcasts also show a green line on the hill: that line already includes current wind and gate adjustments to show what distance is needed to take the lead with typical style scores.

So, when you see someone jump shorter but still take the lead, it’s often because they got helpful wind points, gate points, or both—not because the scoring is random.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.