We'll be bringing you some features and there will be a few changes to our website, taking what we've learned an accomplished this year and improving it to serve you better in the 2006-2007 season. We had 22,000 visitors in January, 42,000 in February, and will finish March with about 20,000 visitors. That will give us about 100,000 for this winter season when we include the early part of the season in November and December. We truly appreciate your visits, and hope you'll tell friends about our sport and this website!

Lindsey Ranks #2, Jessica #3 in the World
Five US women ranked among the world's top fifteen    final standings
Final season rankings for the Women's Continental Cup (LCOC) have now been posted (link above). Norway's Anette Sagen won the season title. Lindsey Van finished 2nd, Jessica Jerome 3rd, Abby Hughes 9th, Alissa Johnson 11th, and Brenna Ellis 15th. The US women won the only team event of the season, in Schoenwald GER. With five jumpers ranked among the top fifteen, the US Women's Team is the best in the world. We expect to see 'em in Vancouver 1n 2010!

US Women's Team #1 In World    team website
FIS-IOC official drops objection to women in Olympics . . . see below
The European swing in the Ladies Continental Cup (LCOC), Feb 9-18, 2006, just happened to overlap the Olympics, from which women were excluded.   On Sunday Feb 12 the US women won the all nations team competition in Schoenwald GER. Had this been an Olympic event, they'd have brought home the gold. These women, the world's #1 team, consistently posted high scores in four individual events as well. Pictured L-R are Lindsey Van, Jessica Jerome, Abby Hughes, Alissa Johnson, Elisabeth Anderson, &  Brenna Ellis ... click photo to view a larger image.       athlete photos & bios       our previous 2006 articles

During NBC's Olympic coverage on Saturday, Feb 25, FIS/IOC official Gian Carlo Kasper reversed his previous objection to the inclusion of women in Olympic ski jumping; he'd previously claimed that it was "medically inappropriate" for women. We can't say that all the publicity surrounding this issue caused him to change his mind, but it certainly didn't hurt. We've taken Mr Kasper to task in the past; we now commend him for rethinking his position.     Feb 25 NBC video     previous media articles & videos

In seeking Olympic inclusion, these young women are NOT asking to do something they're not already doing! They train on the K90 and K120 Olympic jumps at Park City eleven months a year, and compete all season on Olympic-sized hills in the FIS Ladies Continental Cup.   Click WSJUSA logo in right column for more info on Women's Ski Jumping USA.       our previous 2006 season articles

World Cup Title to Czech Jakub Janda
Romoeren & Happonen win at Planica     Sat 3/18   Sun 3/19   final standings
Jakub Janda of the Czech Republic, who built a large early-season points lead, won the 2006 World Cup title ahead of former champion Janne Ahonen of Finland. The final event of the season, Ski Flying at Planica SLO, featured two days of competition on the world's biggest jump. Norway's Bjoern Einar Romoeren won the Saturday event, with Finland's Janne Happonen coming back for the win on Sunday. Top distances both days were in the mid-220s. Romoeren's world record of 239 meters, set here last year, was never threatened. Janda was 29th on Saturday, and did not jump Sunday. Alan Alborn, USA, finished 32nd Saturday, three points short of the cut to the final round of 30. Alborn's 221.5 meter flight here in 2002 remains the longest ever by an American.

SuperTour Finals Held in Steamboat
Jones & Morrice 1-2, Van wins women's class     results   final standings
The SuperTour finals in Steamboat Springs March 17-19 had an international flavor, with US jumper Clint Jones taking the win ahead of Canadian Trevor Morrice. Jones jumped 121.5 and 120, and Morrice's distances were 117 and 121. Lindsey Van won the women's class with jumps of 118.5 and 111.5.

North American Junior Championships
Canadian - American competitions held in Park City March 7-11
Complete results from the North American Junior Championships in Park City have been posted on the Scoreboard page of the NSF site ... click here ... you'll need to scroll to the bottom of the page for links to individual events.

2006 Junior Olympics Concludes
Report & full results from SkiJumpeast       Report from Central Division
Saturday - NC Sprint:RMD team 1 grabbed first place in the men's NC Sprint event, with East 1 in second. In the women's class, top honors went to East 2. Click the "all results index" link above for complete scores and team rosters.

Saturday - Team Jumping: East Team 1 took the top spot in the team competition, with RMD 1 in second place. There was a third-place tie between Central 1 and IMD 1. Click the "all results index" link above for complete scores and team rosters.

Friday - Target Jumping: The "target" format was introduced several years ago by USSA, and it has proven popular with skiers and fans alike. It's a distance elimination tournament, where there are no judges, but there's a pre-determined distance set by officials, and skiers are allowed to choose their start gate for as much speed as they want ... to get as close to the target distance as possible (exceeding target distance results in disqualification). The field is cut in half after each round. Men and women jump in the same class. Forty-four jumpers started, and after four rounds, four skiers took a fifth jump. Taylor Fletcher (RMD) won the fifth round with a jump of 51.5 meters. The other three, Karl Denney & Zak Hammill (both CEN) and Andrew Bliss (East), each jumped 51 meters, creating a three-way tie for second, and ending the competition. The four eliminated prior to the last round were Peter Frenette (East), Nick Hendrickson (IMD), Nick Schott (CEN), and Michael Odernheimer (IMD).  Extra applause to Nick Schott ... here's why!

Friday - Individual NC: Rocky Mountain Division athletes Taylor Fletcher & Brett Denney were the top finishers in the men's individual Nordic Combined event. Tara Geraghty-Moats (East) won the women's class.

Thursday - Individual Jumping: Central Division jumpers Will Schott & Zak Hammill finished 1-2, followed Andrew Bliss (East), Taylor Fletcher(RMD), and Karl Denney (Central). The spread from 2nd through 5th was 9/10 of a point! Avery Ardovino (IMD) won the girls' class, ahead of Faye Stratford and Nina Lussi (both East).

New Jump Complex Planned for Winter Park
"Tunnel Hill" jumps will replace those lost to ski area expansion
The planning and approval process is underway for a five-jump complex at Winter Park. We emphasize that site approval by the town must be completed prior to application for US Forest Service approval, but we want you to know what's in the plans, and a bit about the organization behind this effort. See www.wpjumps.org.

Ski Jumping is a SUMMER sport, too!
Many hills equipped with synthetic surfaces for year-round use
The winter competition season will end in late March, both in the US and internationally. However, training will begin again in early summer, and competition will be underway by midsummer. How? Plastic landing surfaces, and steel or porcelain tracks on the inrun, have become common throughout the ski jumping world.

The most complete North American facility is in Park City, Utah, where the two Olympic jumps (K90 and K120, shown at right) are equipped for summer jumping, as are all four of their junior hills. The biggest summer ski jumping event in the US is held there each August. Lake Placid and Calgary both have summer surfaces on their Olympic K90 jumps, and also on some smaller hills, and Steamboat Springs has a summer-ready 68 meter jump.

In the midwest, Coleraine & St Paul MN, Madison & Iola WI, and Fox River Grove IL (Norge) have one or more year round jumps. We will be bringing you news and information about summer events ... in fact, on our Schedule and Results page, you can see results from the 2005 summer competitions (below the Winter 2006 info).

International & US Masters Championships
IMC 2006 - Kranj SLO         US Masters 2006 - St Paul MN
There are a lot of older jumpers who still jump for the sheer enjoyment of flight. There are Masters classes for those above age 30, with M1 being age group 30-39, M2 ages 40-49, etc. The 2006 International Masters Championships (IMC) were held in Kranj, Slovenia Feb 6-12. The US Nationals were held in St Paul, MN on Jan 28. Don West, the oldest active US Masters competitor, skis in class M4 at age 68. He has provided extensive writeup, with photos, of both the US and International Masters Championships. Click links above to read both articles.

Website Visitor Traffic Stats
Media attention during Olympics brings many new & repeat visitors
Through the first two months of 2006, we've set all-time visitor records. We topped out at 40K+ visitors for February, after drawing 20K+ in January. February's average visitor count was 1500+ per day, with the average length per visit more than five minutes. We drew 20K in March and 10K in April. We want to thank YOU for your interest in our sport!

The sport has received a great deal more media exposure than in previous Olympics, largely because the issue of women's exclusion from the Olympics became quite a story. We've also been assisting with the Women's Ski Jumping USA website, and they are averaging nearly a thousand visitors per day! Visit their WSJ in the News page for links to media coverage.

SkiJumpingUSA has remained atop the Google rankings since 2002 as the busiest English-language ski jumping site. We monitor traffic continuously, and we update our site regularly. Here's a summary of our traffic since December 2004:

• Jan  '05 --   555 per day, 17.1K total <== BEGIN 2005
• Feb  '05 --   488 per day, 13.7K total
• Mar  '05 --   472 per day, 14.6K total
• Apr  '05 --   345 per day, 10.3K total
• May '05 --    215 per day,   6.7K total
• Jun  '05 --   208 per day,   6.0K total
• Jul   '05 --    218 per day,   6.8K total
• Aug  '05 --   247 per day,  7.7K total
• Sep  '05 --   282 per day,  8.5K total
• Oct   '05 --   325 per day, 10.1K total
• Nov  '05 --   347 per day, 10.4K total
• Dec  '05 --   428 per day, 13.3K total
• Jan  '06 --    717 per day, 22.2K total <== BEGIN 2006
• Feb  '06 -- 1523 per day, 42.6K total        Olympics, women's jumping
• Mar  '06 --   655 per day, 20.3K total
• Apr  '06 --   342 per day, 10.9K total

• 100,000 visitors late Nov 2005 through Apr 2006
• Approaching one half million visitors since Dec '01
• Average visitor remains on site about  5 minutes

WomensSkiJumpingUSA
Click to visit our website!

Jump Like a Girl
Website for a cool video featuring Lindsey Van, Jessica Jerome, and Anette Sagen, the world's three top rated female ski jumpers!
www.jumplikeagirl.com

Coaches' Comments
This is where you'll find links to updates from the national coaches who accompany US skiers to international events.