“I never travel without my bedgear™ BALANCE pillow. In fact, I have several, so I can give them to my teammates during our training stays and elevate their performance, too!”

LINDSEY VAN

Bedgear™ teammate Lindsey Van is an American ski jumper who has competed since 2002. Lindsey won a gold medal in the inaugural women's ski jumping event at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 in Liberec and has a total of 8 Continental Cup victories in her career.

Not only has Lindsey Van been her sport's strongest advocate for its inclusion in the 2014 Olympics, but she was also its first world champion in 2009. Van was a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the organizers of the 2010 Winter Olympics; she claimed that her rights and all women's rights were violated because only male ski jumpers were permitted to compete in the Vancouver Olympics. In 2011, it was announced that women's ski jumping on the normal hill would be included in the 2014 Winter Olympics. 

Lindsey is currently training hard, preparing to jump for the US in Russia at the upcoming Olympics and she is an enthusiastic proponent of everyone’s right to achieve their dreams…and the fact that sleep fuels everything!

On the appeal of her sport, Van has said, "You are up the in the air and for a minute it's as if you can fly. It's a feeling like nothing else I've ever felt, and as soon as I land, I just want to go back up to the top and do it again."

Here at bedgear™, we love Lindsey not only for her athleticism and personal and professional perseverance, but also because she has a deep community spirit and connection to people. After learning she was a genetic match, Van donated bone marrow to someone suffering from leukemia in San Francisco, which she considers her greatest accomplishment to date. Lindsey also coaches young girls in her homebase of Park City, Utah, getting them comfortable on the slopes, as well as helping build their confidence and self-esteem.

When she isn’t practicing, Lindsey works with bedgear™ in support of The Foundation for Sleep Awareness, which teaches students the benefits of sleep and why kids especially need to invest in themselves and enhance their performance – both in school and in extracurricular activities – by getting the sleep they require.