The construction point, also known as the critical point, calculation point, K-point and K-spot, is a line across a ski jumping hill

Ski jumping hill

A ski jumping hill is a sports venue used for ski jumping. They vary in size from temporary hand-made snow structures to permanent competition venues. At the top is an in-run where the jumper runs down to generate sufficient speed, before reaching the jump. The skier is then airborne until landing...

 which indicates the hill's steepest point in meters. It was formerly used to classify the size of a ski jumping hill, and to calculate the number of points granted by a given jump. Since mid-2004, the hills are instead measured in hill size

Hill size

Hill size is a measurement for the size of a ski jumping hill. It is calculated based on the technical data of a hill based on radius, angle of inclination and record distance...

.

Classification

Class	Construction point	Hill size Hill size Hill size is a measurement for the size of a ski jumping hill. It is calculated based on the technical data of a hill based on radius, angle of inclination and record distance...
Small hill	<45	<50
Medium hill	45–74	50–84
Normal hill	75–99	85–109
Large hill	100–169	110–184
Ski flying hill	≥170	≥185

For a jump on the Calculation-point distance the athlete gets 60 points. For every meter short or beyond this mark the jumper receives fewer or more points. For example: On a K 120 hill (Calculation point 120 m) the meter value is 1.8 points. So a 122 m jump would be worth 63.6 points, a 118 m jump only 56.4 points. The distance points plus the judges marks result in the total score.

Nearly all competitions in the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup use large hills with a critical point between 120 and 130. The largest is Mühlenkopfschanze

Mühlenkopfschanze

Mühlenkopfschanze is a German ski jumping hill, located in Willingen. It is the world's biggest large hill, and holds World Cup events every year....

 in Germany. In addition, there is an bi-annual FIS Ski-Flying World Championship, which is held in one of the world's five ski flying hills: Vikersundbakken

Vikersundbakken

Vikersundbakken is the only ski flying hill in the Nordic countries. With a hill and world record of 246,5 meters, Vikersundbakken is the world's largest ski jumping hill....

 in Norway, Letalnica Bratov Gorišek in Slovenia, Čerťák

Certák

Čerťák is a ski jumping hill located in the city of Harrachov in the Czech Republic. The venue is most notable for being one of five ski flying hills in the world, though it also has three smaller hills close by. It is owned by the sports club TJ Jiskra Harrachov...

 in the Czech Republic, Heini Klopfer Ski Jump in Germany and Kulm

Kulm (venue)

Kulm is a ski flying hill located in Tauplitz, Austria. It is one of only five venues of this type in the world, allowing for jumps of 200 metres and over...

 in Austria. In the FIS Ski Jumping Continental Cup

Ski jumping Continental Cup

The FIS Ski Jumping Continental Cup is arranged yearly by the International Ski Federation . It's the second-highest ski jumping season-long competition, only surpassed by the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup. The cup usually consist of juniors, or jumpers who are fighting for a spot on their nation's...

, and FIS Women's Ski Jumping Continental Cup, both normal and large hills are used. In the Winter Olympics

Ski jumping at the Winter Olympics

Ski jumping has been included in the program of every Winter Olympic Games. From 1924 through 1956, the competition involved jumping from one hill whose length varied from each edition games to the next. Most historians have placed this length at 70 meters and have classified this as the large hill...

, there is one competition in the normal hill, one in the large hill, and a team competition in the large hill.

Scoring

Ski jumping competitions are based on a point system which combines points for length and style. For hills up to large, the scoring system grants 60 points to jumps which reach the critical point. For ski flying hills, 120 points are granted for the critical point length. Based on the hills length, distance points are calculated, which is added for each meter beyond the critical point and subtracted for each point shorter than the critical point. A meter has more distance points in smaller hills.

Distance points

Calculation point	Distance points
20–24	4.8
25–29	4.4
30–34	4.0
35–49	3.6
40–49	3.2
50–59	2.8
60–69	2.4
70–79	2.2
80–99	2.0
100–169	1.8
>170	1.2