Japanese 'bird' poised to soar at Sochi Games

While world champion Sarah Hendrickson continues rehabilitation from a knee injury and still hopes to compete at Sochi, a precocious Japanese flyer has emerged as the gold medal favorite when women's ski jumping debuts at the Winter Olympics in February.

Sara Takanashi has won all three World Cup ski jumping events this season and dominates the overall standings.

In the middle of next month, the 17-year-old Takanashi will have two "home" World Cup events for her to pad her lead - at Sapporo and Zao, Japan.