Olympic Ski Jumping 2014: Schedule, TV Info and Predictions for Day 7

Qualification for the men's large hill individual ski jump at the 2014 Winter Olympics will commence on Friday.

The normal hill jump was knocked on Sunday, with Poland's Kamil Stoch, Slovenia's Peter Prevc and Norway's Anders Bardal taking home gold, silver and bronze, respectively.

Between the skiers traveling ungodly distances and NBC's ability to swap seamlessly between different camera angles, ski jumping is always one of the more enjoyable events to watch at the Winter Olympics. There's a simple elegance to the event, and when else do you have an opportunity to watch it?

Of the two, large hill is arguably more exciting, as the participants have an extra 30-plus meters with which to build speed before the takeoff.

The normal hill competition is generally 105 meters, while the large hill is up around 140 meters. Dennis Passa of the Associated Press wrote that it's "roughly equivalent to a 40-story fall in about nine seconds."

There was some talk about the course after Stoch crashed in training on Wednesday, as did Russian Mikhail Maksimochkin, who fractured two ribs.

Passa reported, though, that the organizers believe the hill to be safe and won't be making any kind of changes.

Here's a brief preview for what is to come on Day 7.

When: Friday, Feb. 14, at 12:30 p.m. ET

Where: RusSki Gorki Jumping Center, Sochi, Russia

Watch: NBCSN (coverage starts at 2:15 p.m. ET)

Live Stream: NBC Olympics Live Extra

Here's a look at the 61 skiers who will look to advance to the first round. Of those 61, 10 have already qualified. Among that group are the three medal winners from Sunday.

Bib	Name	Country	Status
1	Nicholas Alexander	United States	-
2	Siim-Tanel Sammelselg	Estonia	-
3	Sorin Iulian Pitea	Romania	-
4	Vladimir Zografski	Bulgaria	-
5	Matthew Rowley	Canada	-
6	Chil-Ku Kang	South Korea	-
7	Roman Koudelka	Czech Republic	-
8	Nico Polychronidis	Greece	-
9	Heung-Chul Choi	South Korea	-
10	Sebastian Colloredo	Italy	-
11	Trevor Morrice	Canada	-
12	Marat Zhaparov	Kazakhstan	-
13	Anders Johnson	United States	-
14	Dusty Korek	Canada	-
15	Hyun-Ki Kim	South Korea	-
16	Ilmir Hazetdinov	Russia	-
17	Seou Choi	South Korea	-
18	Alexey Pchelintsev	Kazakhstan	-
19	Peter Frenette	United States	-
20	Nicholas Fairall	United States	-
21	Kaarel Nurmsalu	Estonia	-
22	Alexey Romashov	Russia	-
23	Roberto Dellasega	Italy	-
24	Olli Muotka	Finland	-
25	Davide Bresadola	Italy	-
26	Ronan Lamy Chappuis	France	-
27	Antonin Hajek	Czech Republic	-
28	Denis Kornilov	Russia	-
29	Jarkko Maeaettae	Finland	-
30	Anders Jacobsen	Norway	-
31	Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes	Canada	-
32	Reruhi Shimizu	Japan	-
33	Dimitry Vassiliev	Russia	-
34	Gregor Deschwanden	Switzerland	-
35	Jakub Janda	Czech Republic	-
36	Rune Velta	Norway	-
37	Janne Ahonen	Finland	-
38	Anssi Koivuranta	Finland	-
39	Anders Fannemel	Norway	-
40	Michael Hayboeck	Austria	-
41	Jan Matura	Czech Republic	-
42	Richard Freitag	Germany	-
43	Piotr Zyla	Poland	-
44	Maciej Kot	Poland	-
45	Jurij Tepes	Slovenia	-
46	Jan Ziobro	Poland	-
47	Jernej Damjan	Slovenia	-
48	Taku Takeuchi	Japan	-
49	Daiki Ito	Japan	-
50	Marinus Kraus	Germany	-
51	Thomas Morgenstern	Austria	-
52	Robert Kranjec	Slovenia	PQ
53	Thomas Diethart	Austria	PQ
54	Andreas Wellinger	Germany	PQ
55	Anders Bardal	Norway	PQ
56	Simon Ammann	Switzerland	PQ
57	Severin Freund	Germany	PQ
58	Gregor Schlierenzauer	Austria	PQ
59	Noriaki Kasai	Japan	PQ
60	Peter Prevc	Slovenia	PQ
61	Kamil Stoch	Poland	PQ

A few of the favorites to advance are Austria's Michael Hayboeck, Poland's Maciej Kot, Slovenia's Jernej Damjan and Finland's Anssi Koivuranta. Those four are among the highest finishers in the normal hill who haven't already pre-qualified.

Lars Baron/Getty Images

Hayboeck posted an impressive 258.0 in the final round of the normal hill, missing out on a medal by 6.1 points. Repeating that finish may be difficult, but he should advance to the next round at the very least.

Kot and Damjan finished within 1.1 points of each other in the normal hill final round, with Kot in seventh and Damjan in ninth.

Should any of those four aforementioned skiers be eliminated on Thursday, it would be a massive shock.

Looking at each country, Austria in particular should perform well. Thomas Diethart and Gregor Schlierenzauer have already qualified, while Hayboeck and Thomas Morgenstern, who finished 14th on Sunday, look like solid bets to make it through as well.

If you're also looking for somebody for whom to root, Morgenstern is your guy.

Matthias Schrader/Associated Press

On Jan. 10, he suffered a head injury and a damaged lung in a bad crash during training.

The 27-year-old acknowledged how difficult it was to get back on the hill again, per BBC Sport's Nick Hope:

"

"I was in my hospital bed thinking 'why am I lying here?'" he said. "I didn't and still can't remember what happened."

"It was the hardest time of my life.

"To take part in any competition and go back on the hill after what has happened was so difficult and even to think about ski jumping again was hard."

"

Now, here he is in Sochi with a chance to possibly medal in large hill individual. Doing so would make Morgenstern one of the best stories of the Winter Olympics, so whatever progression he makes is a notable storyline.

Although Friday is merely the qualifying round, it's a good chance to see some of the top ski jumpers in the world get one step closer to a gold medal.