Casey Colby, Coach       www.womensskijumpingusa.com

2004-2005 Season Archive

March 13, 2005
Oslo NOR - Holmenkollen

It was a very, very, very long day. After canceling everyone's training yesterday due to the wind, the ladies were scheduled to jump at 8:30 this morning. Amazingly enough the fog did not roll in to the Holmenkollen but the wind picked up the slack. So everything was delayed throughout the day. The NC boys eventually had their event, then at 4pm the ladies took 2 training jumps, which went pretty well, followed by the men's training and qualification. The ladies competition started at 7pm, no trial round, just competition jumps.

The wind was still a bit of a problem, it was pretty strong at times. The wind screen never moved an inch because it took a constant pounding and just stayed filled to capacity at all times. The range that the jury usually uses to determine the best and worst possible wind conditions to send a jumper in, deeming the comp fair, seemed a bit larger than usual. But in the end the most experienced jumpers, and the ones that were the least "scared" came out on top.

Anette Sagen had good jumps but was also aided with 6 meters per second headwind on her first jump to set a ladies hill record of 128 meters on the K-115. Lindsey had two really good jumps but got rocked by some crosswind and was tossed around a lot on one jump, but still managed the best style points both rounds. Jess had two solid jumps and a really funny slide back down the counter-slope after missing the exit where she needed to take off her skis (Eurosport got this on TV just for fun). Alissa had one good jump and one average jump in some tricky wind but was really competitive. Here are your results for the day.

  1 Anette Sagen NOR 254.5
  2 Lindsey Van USA 204.5 (left)
  3 Jessica Jerome USA 181.4 (center)
  4 Line Jahr NOR 180.6
  5 Izumi Yamada JPN 174.2
  6 Maja Vtic SLO 172.2
  7 Daniela Iraschko AUT 164.1
  8 Eva Ganster AUT 146.3
  9 Alissa Johnson USA 145.2 (right)
10 Yoshiko Kasai JPN 136.6

Today we all said good-bye to a true pioneering lady in the sport of ski jumping. Eva Ganster took her final competitive jumps today with her father watching as the Assistant TD of the event. She is known around the world as the first woman to ever go ski-flying and a great ambassador for ski jumping as a whole, not just the Ladies Ski Jumping movement. There will be very few women like Eva in this sport ever again and all of the ladies of the world owe her a debt of gratitude for all of her years and amazing work putting women on the minds of people whenever they think of ski jumping.

Unofficial overall '04-'05 LCOC Standings (world rankings):

  1 Annette Sagen NOR 1020
  2 Lindsey Van USA 740
  3 Daniela Iraschko AUT 620
  4 Line Jahr NOR 567
  5 Jessica Jerome USA 525
  6 Ulrike Graessler GER 519
  7 Monika Pogladic SLO 478
  8 Maja Vtic SLO 372
  9 Alissa Johnson USA 304
10 Juliane Seyfahrth GER 292

I hope your season was as good to you as it was to our US Women on the LCOC tour.

March 6, 2005
Vikersund NOR

Vikersund, NOR Competition #2 March 6, 2005 Another perfectly calm and sunny day in Vikersund made for another excellent competition. In the first competition round Lindsey missed her technique a little bit and stood in 3rd place; Alissa had a better jump than yesterdays performance and sat in 5th place, and Jessica, after a much better trial round appeared to try too hard and was in 8th place. There were a couple of "dark-horses" in the top group after the first round and the pressure was on these young girls, one from Germany and one from Italy, to hit a good 2nd jump.

In the final round Jessica jumped 4 meters farther than the first jump, 91.5 meters. Alissa had a pretty good jump but was pushed out by a couple of ladies, one being Jess, who had great 2nd jumps. Alissa was 88.5 and 86.5 meters, Lindsey had a better jump also and landed the 2nd best jump of the round at 94.5 meters.

1 Anette Sagen NOR 253.0
2 Line Jahr NOR 238.5
3 Lindsey Van USA 235.5  (3rd from L)
4 Ulrike Graessler GER 233.5
5 Jessica Jerome USA 217.5  (2nd from R)
6 Petra Benedik SLO 212.0
7 Henriette Smeby NOR 211.5
8 Alissa Johnson USA 210.5

March 5, 2005
Vikersund NOR

We had a 2 day travel experience for the team, which included a 24 hour stop in Minneapolis because the Amsterdam airport closed down completely on Wednesday. We had an extra long stay in Amsterdam, due to the fact that there were thousands of people stranded there from the previous day. We finally made it to Oslo and then Vikersund at 8pm Friday evening. The ladies were allowed an extra jump by the jury before the trial round due to our late arrival and troubles. Lindsey, Jessica and Alissa seemed rather well rested for 3 people that spent so much time on the road the previous 2 days. The competition went pretty well, the conditions were very fair but the field was a little small. Most of the countries only brought 3 ahtletes. The Norwegian contingent is a little small for being the host country, and that made the total number of jumpers 21. Monika Pogladic fell in official training and did not compete because of a back injury. Results as follows:

1 Anette Sagen NOR 251.5
2 Lindsey Van USA 242.0 (L)
3 Ulrike Graessler GER 229.5
4 Line Jahr NOR 225.0
5 Jessica Jerome USA 224.0 (C)
5 Maja Vtic SLO 224.0
7 Juliane Seyfarth GER 223.0
8 Alissa Johnson USA 218.5 (R)

Competition tomorrow morning again. Hopefully the ladies run as well on auto-pilot tomorrow. It will then be off to Lillehammer and Oslo (Holmenkollen).

February 20, 2005
Back home in Park City!

Saalfelden AUT was the last event of the tour for the ladies, in Feb. Again, the conditions on the jump were great; but the living conditions were horrible. The first night we were forced to stay in farm houses that reeked of manure and were not even close to clean or sanitary. Barn cats were allowed in the eating area and on the tables, everyone shared a shower and bathroom, and the blankets for the bed were too short, even for the ladies. Some of the pictures taken by one of the other coaches showed such disgusting things that they will be included in the FIS report for the event.

The coaches demanded a new housing situation and the organizers agreed. So after official training on Friday morning we were told to move to another hotel near the jumps, so we went looking for our rooms. The hotel, however, was still full and would be full until 7pm that evening. The teams of the USA, SLO, AUT, NOR, and JPN sat around the hotel restaurant for almost 8 hours waiting for rooms. The hotel was not at fault, just the organizers and their disorganization or miscommunication to all of the teams. There was a sponsor dinner at 6:30pm that evening and many of the teams decided not to go because we were still waiting on rooms.

Around 7:15pm the main tour organizer arrived at our hotel and was very upset with all of us coaches for not attending the party. He told us that he would cancel the competition the following day, and to be honest, we actually didn't mind that much because we felt that an organizer who wasn't willing to follow the standards and rules of FIS didn't deserve an event of this caliber. Eventually after arguing our points to the tour organizer and showing him the pictures he calmed down and we all came to understand the others point of view. In the end, the event would happen.

Comp day. Lindsey went in the comp with some good jumps and a decent sized lead in the 4-hills overall. But something went wrong and she had a pretty terrible day. Lindsey had a bad first jump and it seemed to affect her whole approach to the second jump. Her second jump was even worse and it placed her in 13th place and she fell back into 2nd place in the 4-hills tour; which is still a very respectable finish but for her a disappointment after leading for the last 3 events.

Jessica had a better day and had a couple of good jumps. She jumped to 4th place in the event and earned enough points to move herself into 4th place in the 4-hills tour, just 9 points behind Lindsey in 2nd place. Alissa had a good 2nd jump when everyone was jumping shorter and finished in 16th place. Karla picked up the pace a bit and finished in 21st place and Brenna placed 32nd.

It was a long trip, 4 hills, 5 comps and a lot of driving. It felt like 2 months of travel and travel-related problems rolled into 2 weeks. Especially for Lindsey who was in Europe for 6 weeks in total. Lindsey, Jessica, Alissa and I will return for the final 3 Continental cups in Norway on March 2nd.

February 16, 2005
Rastbuechl GER

We had a long day even before the competition started here in Rastbuchl, GER. The organizers took all the teams to a glass blowing factory and gave them a demonstration and a chance to try it for themselves. Then we all had lunch at a large brewery in Passau, not really your traditional lunch for ski jumpers; a strange sausage thing that was albino white and a little sketchy looking.

The competition was in the evening. Perfect conditions and very fair. I think the speed was a little too much for the first competition round, making it possible for a few younger ladies to compete with the more seasoned veterans. After the first round the US ladies were not sitting very well and were quite unhappy with any number of things; most of which were out of their control.

Trying to put these frustrations aside they headed back up for the final jump. Karla had two better comp jumps after feeling really frustrated: sadly the comp was quite hard and her result wasn't as high as if they were on a bigger hill. Alissa slipped a little bit in the final round, her back was giving her some trouble after a little fall at the hotel earlier in the day left her bruised.

Jess and Lindsey had two solid jumps to finish the comp and then watched as a few of the other ladies faltered when the pressure was on them to perform. Lindsey moved up to 5th, Jess to 7th. They are not terribly happy with the end result but they now know that everyone has to perform 2 good jumps each comp and maybe they shold not worry about the things out of their control.

1   Anette Sagen NOR 253.0
2   Daniela Iraschko AUT 243.7
3   Line Jahr NOR 238.7
4   Ulrike Graessler GER 237.9
5   Lindsey Van USA 233.6 (L)
6   Juliane Seyfarth GER 232.5
7   Jessica Jerome USA 232.1 (C)
18  Alissa Johnson USA 208.3 (R)
27  Karla Keck USA 192.7
32  Brenna Ellis USA 89.7

Lindsey is in 3rd overall in the COC ranking, Jess is 7th, Alissa 10, Karla 17, and Brenna 22. Lindsey still leads the overall for the 4-hills tour and Jessica is just one good comp from being in the top 3 since the points are so close for 2-5.

February 15, 2005
Rastbuechl GER

Our team event that was canceled this past Sunday was held today on the K-75 meter jump in Rastbuchl, Germany. This jump is 10 meters smaller than the hill that the event was originally scheduled for, but it is a great small hill.

This morning we all had 3 training jumps to start off the day. Excellent conditions and cold temps made everything very good for jumping. The team from the USA was made up of Karla, Alissa, Jessica and Lindsey. There was no doubt that these ladies were walking into this event with a good deal of confidence even though the teams from many countries had a good shot at the podium this year.

It was particularly tough for us coaches to make our annual wager on the event. We all sit down after the coaches meeting and we each write down or pick for the top 6 places. The coach that gets it right wins all the Euro's. But with so many teams capable of having 3, even 4 ladies in the top 10-15, this was going to be too close to call.

As we made our way through the first round it became clear that things were not going to go as anyone expected. At any moment, in the middle of every seed group of ten skiers, a coach could be heard sighing or complaining about their teams jumps, or clapping their hands giving out high-5's to their assistant coaches for great jumps. Some of the young athletes were really stepping up to the plate and performing well, while some of the most seasoned veterans from many countries were not really on their usual game.

The Norwegian team was having trouble even before the event started; 3 of their athletes were without skis because the airline lost them yesterday when they traveled from Oslo. So the three ski-less athletes borrowed a single pair from one of the Slovenian ladies. After each Norwegian would jump, a car would race past the clubhouse on its way to the top of the jump to deliver the skis to the next Norwegian athlete would then use them right away, only to have them raced back to the top for the last athlete.

At the end of the evening things were not as we had hoped. All of the US ladies were either 3rd or 4th place in their respective seed group, but this was not enough to regain the top spot that they earned in 2003.

1. Austria 896.8
2. Slovenia 861.0
3. USA 860.5
4. Norway 855.3
5. Germany 818.3
6. Italy 734.8

As you can see, the real fight was for 2nd place. The Austrian team really stepped up and jumped well this evening. No athlete finishing worst than 2nd place in their respective seeds. Slovenia was pretty big surprise to all. The two young girls on the team really performed very well and scored a lot of valuable meters that, in the long run, made all the difference in the world.

I hope that if the USA ladies read this they will remember one thing for the next event, style points still count for a lot in this sport. One half of a point does not seem like a lot to worry about until that is the difference between the steps on the podium. All of our ladies had at least one jump with less than 50 points for style; a lesson learned the hard way I guess.

Oh, and as for my wager, I did not win any money. I don't think anyone did. Everyone had the USA picked for first or second place. And only one coach picked the Slovenian team to finish on the podium; and not surprisingly, it was their own head coach.

February 13, 2005
Baiersbronn GER

Team event canceled today. we arrived at the jumps to perfect weather, light snow, light headwind and 1 Celsius. 10 minutes before the start the wind picked up and then it started dumping snow; about 4 inches in 30 minutes. So after about an hour the event was canceled and we hope it will be moved to the next stop on the tour, probably Wednesday morning. It's a good decision because now the Norwegians will be in the comp as well.

February 12, 2005
Baiersbronn GER

It has been a couple of really slow days. The rain came in Thursday night and has only taken a break from showering us for a total of about 3-4 hours. The training was canceled yesterday in hopes of protecting the jump until competition day, which, in hind-sight, was probably a very good idea.

So today, we woke up and it was still raining. All of the snow that was in town, about a half meter, is now gone and the ground is green and brown. It was absolutely pouring when we arrived at the jumps. When the ladies returned from their warm-up they were all about 20 lbs heavier.

When the trial round was about to start the rain seemed to let up and the low clouds were being blown out and things appeared to be getting better, but this did not last long. After the first 10-15 jumpers the rain came back and the changing winds returned to become even more inconsistent than before. There was no sense to the light being changed from red to green. Sometimes it was raging tailwind and sometimes it was raging headwind; it was like rolling the dice and trying to predict the outcome.

After the first comp round a few strange things had happened. The leader was a SLO lady, Maja Vtic, that has never been on the podium before. She had a good jump and the most beneficial wind imaginable and was in the lead by 8.5 points over 2nd place. Two Japanese skiers were 2 and 3, Jess was 4 Lindsey was 5 and so on.

The other crazy thing that happened deals with Brenna. She had a better than normal jump and she actually had really good wind. But I think that too many things changing from the jump before she was feeling too stable with the wind and better jump. She wound up pushing her skis away right from the beginning of the flight and got out of control with her skis and had to set down at 54 meters.

Since the rain was so strong we did not have a reverse order or a cut, all the ladies just returned to the top of the jump ASAP and we headed into the 2nd round. With the wind still blowing inconsistently I was hoping for a little good karma this round. I figured that because only one of our US Ladies had decent wind the first round, things had to be better for the 2nd round.

I was almost right. After the first 10 skiers of the final round the wind started to die and things were pretty fair for the final 15-20 skiers. So the Ladies from the USA fared pretty well in some respects. Jess and Lindsey were 2 of only 5 skiers that had 2 jumps over 80 meters, and they were both close to the K-point on each jump. they Just couldn't regain the points needed to make up the difference from the 1st round, but they did improve.

Results (Sat Feb 12)

1  Monika Pogladic SLO 226
2  Maja Vtic SLO 223
3  Lindsey Van USA 220.5
4  Jessica Jerome USA 217
5  Juliane Seyfarth GER 208.5
6  Ulrike Graessler GER 208
11 Alissa Johnson USA 188.5
23 Karla Keck USA 160
30 Brenna Ellis USA 115.5

The 3 best Norwegian ladies were forced to go back home to compete in their their National Championships this weekend, that is why there are no Norwegians in the results...But they will back on Monday to finish the tour. On little side note, a young Italian had the best day of her career in 8th place, Elena Runggaldier.

Overall COC standings look like this right now:
1 Anette Sagen, NOR; 2 Lindsey Van, USA; 3 Daniela Iraschko, AUT; 4 Monika Pogladic, SLO; 5 Ulrike Graessler, GER; 6Jessica Jerome, USA; 7 Line Jahr, NOR; 8 Maja Vtic, SLO; 9 Juliane Seyfarth, GER; 10 Alissa Johnson, USA; 11 Henriette Smeby, NOR; 12 Jacqueline Seifriedsberger, AUT; 13 Lisa Demetz, ITA; 14 Tanja Drage, AUT; 15 Petra Benedik, SLO; 16 Eva Ganster, AUT; 17 Karla Keck, USA; 18 Jenna Mohr, GER; 19 Brenna Ellis, USA; 20 Elena Runggaldier, ITA

Standings for Women's Grand Prix (the four February COC events only):
1 Lindsey Van, USA 467.5; 2 Monika Pogladic, SLO 448.0; 3 Maja Vtic, SLO 445.0; 4 Ulrike Graessler, GER 442.0; 5 Daniela Iraschko, AUT 438.0; 5 Jessica Jerome, USA 438.0; 18 Alissa Johnson, USA 380.5; 23 Karla Keck, USA 341.5; 33 Brenna Ellis, USA 201.0

February 9, 2005
Schoenwald GER

A day late for Feb 8 results but here they are. The hotel internet was down yesterday for some reason and nobody could get online after the comp was over.

1  Daniela Iraschko, AUT 253.5
2  Lindsey Van, USA 247
3  Anette Sagen, NOR 243
4  Ulrike Grassler, GER 234
5  Line Jahr, NOR 230.5
6  Monika Pogladic, SLO 222
6  Maja Vtic, SLO 222
6  Juliane Seyfarth, GER 222
9  Jessica Jerome, USA 221
22 Alissa Johnson, USA 192
26 Karla Keck, USA 181.5
31 Brenna Ellis, USA 85.5

Conditions were great, nice weather and the hill is in excellent condition. It was a very close competition and a few points made a big difference. Lindsey had jumps that kept getting better all day. Jessica had a couple of good training jumps but her 18th birthday was not what she had hoped. Her comp jumps were not up to her normal standards. However, the other ladies did sing her happy birthday in front of about 500 people in the crowd.

Alissa was jumping really well in Park City before we came overseas but could not find the same form here. Karla had a few jumps that were better, and she actually had a decent competition compared to last month, but there are more ladies in these events than last month. Brenna had an off day. She was having some trouble with her inrun and just didn't seem as though she could be aggressive in the flight because of it. Unfortunately she fell victim to the very first use of the 2nd round being only 30 skiers. There were 38 jumpers entered from eight countries.

We now have a day off to drive to our next event, and recover form a large meal and cake that was served in honor of Jessica's birthday (photo and 18th birthday link courtesy of WomensSkiJumpingUSA website).

January 22, 2005
Oberaudorf GER

We're here in Oberaudorf for the 3rd COC-L in January. Our time here has been frustrating for many reasons. The weather was very poor for the first day and half, pouring rain all day and all night Thursday until 10am Friday. The crew sounded very pessimistic when they first spoke about the hills condition and if they would be able to fix the track and get the hill back in shape. Of course I told them that we in the USA re-snow the entire tower on some jumps the morning of the competition just so we can hold the event. If they were to just give up I told them that I would very upset with their efforts.

Anyhow, the weather improved and the crew, maybe feeling guilty, fixed the inrun while the rain changed to snow to help them out a bit. So the jumping began on Saturday at 10am with a training jump and a trial jump, then a short break before the 2 comp rounds. Only 2 of the ladies showed any preparedness for their first training jump on the new hill, Lindsey and Anette (NOR). On the K-80 meter they jumped 83 and 85 respectively and were 10 and 12 meters clear of the 3rd best jump of 73.

Once all of the yelps and screams were let out on the first 2 jumps everything ran according to plan with only a few hick-ups. After the first round the points were very close for 2nd place through 5th place and again from 6th place to 9th place. In the end Anette Sagen was the winner for the 3rd event in a row with 254 points.

1   Anette Sagen, NOR 254.0
2   Ulrike Graessler, GER 233.0
3   Lindsey Van, USA 232.0
4   Line Jahr, NOR 228.5
5   Jessica Jerome, USA 224.0
6   Tanja Drage, AUT 223.5
6   Daniela Iraschko, AUT 223.5
13 Alissa Johnson, USA 196.0
19 Brenna Ellis, USA 162.5
20 Karla Keck, USA 158.5

The 2nd round start list neglected to list Brenna for some reason, and had 12 meters less distance for one of the German girls. So a lot of angry German was spoken to the jury when I arrived at the judges tower to correct this oversight. They then printed a new list, which was correct, finally.

Then the Italian skier that jumped in front of Brenna in the 2nd round fell just past the fall line and lay right in the middle of the bumpy, sketchy outrun. From where the coaches were standing we could not see this, and for some reason the light turned green telling Brenna she had 10 seconds to go. So I flagged her, clueless to what was going on at the bottom of the hill, and she let go of the bar just as people started screaming towards the judges tower to inform them that there was still an athlete on the outrun. Everything was fine in the long run, Brenna jumped and turned far enough away from the downed skier to be safe, but the coaches of all of the teams were not happy.

In the end, not a stellar day here on the COC-L tour. (I do not think that I am the jury's, or organizers, favorite international coach at this point) There was some shuffling around of rankings in the overall after today's competition. So the overall COC-L ranking looks like this (officially Un-Official):

1   Annette Sagen, NOR
2   Lindsey Van, USA
3   Daniela Iraschko, AUT
4   Monika Pogladic, SLO
5   Line Jahr, NOR
6   Jessica Jerome, USA
7   Ulrike Graessler, GER
8   Henriette Smeby, NOR
9   Alissa Johnson, USA
10 Lisa Demetz, ITA
11 Jaqueline Seifriedsberger, AUT
12 Juliane Seyfarth, GER
13 Maja Vtic, SLO
14 Tanja Drage, AUT
15 Eva Ganster, AUT
16 Karla Keck, USA
17 Brenna Ellis, USA

We will return home for some rest and training for 4 of the girls and return with the same team on Feb. 5th for the 7th annual 4 hills tour in Germany and Austria. Lindsey will be spending the next 2 weeks training in Trondheim, NOR with Anette Sagen and her club team.

January 19, 2005
Toblach-Dobbiaco ITA

Here's the story about our competition in ITA. Good conditions for the most part, sometimes some bad tailwind but not so much that it was unfair for anyone.

Lindsey had average jumps. She hates the small hills, as most of the girls do. Her leg is really bothering her, pain from an old stress fracture that always flares up really bad on these small hills. She placed second behind Anette Sagen of Norway.

Jessica had pretty good jumps but lack of good telemark landings lost her a lot of points. She actually outjumped Lindsey by 3 meters total but never scored higher than a 16.5 from the judges, finishing third.

Alissa was much more confident today and after a "sketchy" trial jump (first jump on new skis) she had two good ones. She actually had the 2nd longest jump of the final round, but she too suffered with her style points, not higher than 16.5 from the judges, costing her possibly 2 spots in the results. She finished sixth.

Karla had on new skis today as well and jumped better in comparison to the SLO competition on Sunday. Trying to correct a couple of habits is not easy since she has so few jumps this year. But she had a better day, finishing 21st.

Brenna had one bad jump. There was actually a lot of snow falling in the ice track after I flagged her so it is hard to say if that affected her jump much. Her trial and final jump were both 7 meters farther than her bad one. She took 25th, but if both good jumps had been in competition, she'd have been in the top 20.

Ciao, we are off to Germany in the morning for a K83 meter competition.

January 17, 2005
Toblach-Dobbiaco ITA

Things actually went very badly until the competition at Planica. We were delayed and had to run to the plane in Chicago; they delayed that flight because of us. Then none of our bags arrived so we waited for 8 hours in Munich to get them. Alissa's skis never arrives and, to make a long story short, they are still missing. We think they were stolen, had to file a police report in SLO.

Planica competition: Lindsey 2nd, Jessica 5th after winning official training the day before. Alissa 8th on borrowed skis, Brenna 22nd and Karla 25th. We are in ITA now and I cannot use my own computer because their wireless system is a secure one. So I am using the hotel system on a German keyboard, which is a little different. I did get Elan to get a pair of skis to me in ITA tomorrow for Alissa, though we have to pay for them. I think her chances of getting things replaced or paid for by insurance or the credit card company are not good. She had her knee brace and jump suit and lot of clothes in the ski bag too. Overall Lindsey is now 3rd, Jessica 6th, Alissa 9th, and Karla and Brenna tied for 16th in world rankings.

The team for the February events will be the same as the team for this trip.

January 10, 2005
Park City, UT

With the start of the New Year the women are getting ready for the first full season of FIS Ladies Continental Cups. One week before traveling to Europe we received notice that the first 2 events that were to be held in Kranj, SLO have been moved to Planica’s K-90 due to a lack of snow and warm temps in Kranj. From there the ladies will travel to Toblach, ITA and then finish up in Oberaudorf, GER. The team that will be representing the USA are:

• Lindsey Van (age 20)
• Jessica Jerome (17)
• Alissa Johnson (17)
• Karla Keck (29)
• Brenna Ellis (16)

It is going to be a great trip overseas with this group of ladies, they are ready to compete and I believe that we will be seeing a lot of podium finishes for the USA this season.

December 12, 2004
Park City, UT

After the most successful fundraiser to date for Women’s Ski Jumping USA the outlook is very optimistic for the upcoming season. Months of planning and preparation, long days and nights of work culminated in a large black tie benefit of 150+ people, at Log Haven resort in Salt Lake City. The list of people to thank for this is extensive, but some of the very key players are Kathy and Glen Shurtleff, Deedee Corradini, Pete and Barb Jerome and many, many more.

Raising money to help support our lady ski jumpers has had a profound effect on the athlete’s outlook for the winter season. Although we in the USA have had a late start to the winter jumping we have come out of the gates fast. After only 1 or 2 days of training in Steamboat under their belt the guys and ladies competed on the K-90 in a divisional competition. For the ladies the results turned out like this:

• 1st Lindsey Van
• 2nd Jessica Jerome (only 0.5 points separating 1st & 2nd)
• 3rd Alissa Johnson
• 4th Brenna Ellis

Although it had been an extended break since they had jumped on porcelain and plastic, it was good to see the competitive juices flowing.

After only one day of training on the K-90 in Park City we are heading to Calgary, CAN for the SuperTour event they are hosting on Dec. 18. Utilizing the results from the SuperTour, and Calgary’s club competition the same weekend, a team of 4-5 ladies will be selected for the first set of Winter Continental Cup events in mid January. First stop, Kranj, SLO for 2 competitions on their new HS106. (Also a candidate for the 2006 World Junior Championships). Then on to Dobbiaco/Toblach, ITA for a competition on their small hill, HS67. The final event in January will be held close to the Austrian border in Oberaudorf, GER HS89. All four of these events take place back to back in the short period of time between Jan 15-22.

Rankings from the summer LCOC events in Park City currently stand as follows:

• 5th Lindsey Van
• 7th Jessica Jerome*
• 9th Alissa Johnson
• 14th Karla Keck
• 17th Brenna Ellis
• 20th Abby Hughes*
• 23rd Taylor Lyons
• 24th Avery Ardovino
• 25th Janne Rand
• 26th Brittany Rhoads

With 12 more Continental Cups left in the season, the consistency of the US Ladies serves them well in their attempts to climb the ranks.

December 6, 2004
Park City, UT

We're continuing to train in Park City, and will have updates posted soon!

 
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