BIOGRAPHY 
Lindsey Van's heard it countless times, and probably thought about it even more - "It's not the size of the dog in the fight; it's the size of the fight in the dog." Since she started jumping off the hills at Utah Olympic Park and moved elsewhere as a 12-year-old, she's shown people height is not obligatory for jumping success. She's won at the club, the national, the Grand Prix and Continental Cup levels...and she's not stopping until at least 2010.

UPDATE
Taking a step up to become one of the world's best ski jumpers, Van dedicated herself to excelling as an athlete and a team leader in 2008. Van was on fire, landing on the podium twice in 24 hours during Continental Cup competitions in Norway. She then repeated her double-header podium success less than a week later in Germany before being sidelined with an injury. Even after missing part of the season, Van finished sixth in the world standings.

FIRST TRACKS 
"I started out [alpine] ski racing, but just liked going off the jumps, so I went and tried ski jumping. I was hooked from my first jump," she said. Van was there in 1999 when women's jumping was a demonstration event - finishing fourth in a steady rain - at the World Championships in Ramsau, Austria, and she earned the bronze medal when it was a demonstration event again in 2004 at the Junior World Championships in Stryn, Norway.

FIRST CONTINENTAL CUP 
July 23, 2004 in Park City, UT (5th on K90)

I AM 
Majoring in exercise sports science (and maybe some sports physiology) at The U...Soccer, water skiing and alpine skiing...Loving the meets in Japan because I like the different culture and I really do like their sushi...And loving to rip it up on alpine skis when I can...Two dogs - Annie, named for my aunt who died at a young age, and Yuki, which means snow in Japanese. She's white and loves the snow...