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An Olympic gold medalist's training video showcases the other-worldly balance and leg strength it takes to succeed in ski jumping

Meredith Cash   

An Olympic gold medalist's training video showcases the other-worldly balance and leg strength it takes to succeed in ski jumping
  • Ski jumping involves a lot more than just flinging one's body hundreds of feet through the air.
  • Finding success in the thrilling Olympic sport requires incredible balance and leg strength.

Ski jumping takes much more than meets the eye.

The thrilling Olympic sport — in which athletes catapult off of a ramp at 60 miles per hour and soar hundreds of feet through the air before, ideally, landing gently on the slope below — appears to be an exercise in adrenaline and chaos.

But for those who are successful, the event actually requires an incredible amount of physical and mental discipline.

Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi is the class of the sport on the men's side. The 25-year-old won gold in the normal hill competition and silver in the large hill event at the Beijing Olympics. And to get there, he completed some mind-boggling training routines.

The Olympics' official Twitter account shared a video of Kobayashi's astounding workout regimen after he collected his medals. In the clip, the 5-foot-8, 132-pound star is seen leaping over waist-high hurdles and landing on bosu balls. He then tip-toes his way across an obstacle course of vertically placed dumbbells, medicine balls, more hurdles, and a four-wheel scooter board.

It's an absolute masterclass in balance, endurance, and core and leg strength. And it's no wonder that, when he takes off during a competition, Kobayashi can fly nearly 350 feet through the air.

Check out the incredible clip below:

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