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Casey Colby, Coach www.womensskijumpingusa.com
March 9, 2006
Vaaler NOR
by Casey Colby
We had a good crowd again for this comp, much like last year. Conditions were quite good for the comp, no wind and a landing hill that was in much better shape than the previous day. Part of the way through the first competitive round a big hole formed in the left track of the inrun. It was easy to see because so many of the ladies left skis would jump pretty severely to the outside at exactly the place each time. As is always the case, the skiers at the end of the round handled the problem a bit better so they jumps were still pretty good.
After the first round, the results were close and in our favor. USA was 1st, 2nd, 10th, and 15th. The 10th and 15th may not look too impressive but the points were pretty close and the possibility to move up was pretty good.
During the break the track needed to be repaired. I am not sure how this happened but one of the people working on the inrun was Miran Tepes, the Asst. Race Director for the men's World Cup Ski Jumping. He was on his way to Lillehammer for the World Cup and stopped by to watch the ladies.
The second round got a little bit tougher. Due to the track repairs and the extra long wait we were now much later in the evening than official training was and the air was as still as can be. Our ladies had a bit of a tough time, I think the waiting around had a little bit of a negative effect. Abby had a better jump but lost her balance over the knoll which cost her some meters. She moved down one spot to 16th overall. Alissa had a pretty similar jump to her first one, just short of the k-point, and finished 11th. Ulrike (GER) had a great 2nd jump, 97.5 meters, after sitting in 6th after the first jump she put the pressure on the top 5 to jump really far. She was followed by Line (NOR) in 5th place. She put down a jump of only 93 meters but made up a lot in style over Ulrike to take the lead.
Lisa and Anette had average jumps of 87.5 and 91 meters respectively, and were unable to take over the lead from Line and Uli. The last 2 skiers on the jump were Jess and Lindsey. Jess was first to go. After having some really good jumps on this hill we thought great things were in the bag for the ol' USA. But a little too much tension and trying a little bit too hard, and unfavorable wind, made Jess miss the take-off and revert to her old ways, she landed at 86.5 meters with only average style, and with the points so close it was not enough to keep her in the top group. Last jumper, Lindsey, at the top. The wind was still no good when the light turned green. Lindsey managed to have a great jump and as soon as she left the take-off we all knew where she was going...to the bottom. She had the longest jump and the best style of the comp. She won by a large amount, 21 points ahead of 2nd place. Its a pretty nice way to end a very long season.
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Vaaler March 8 results: 1. Lindsey Van USA 252.5 2. LIne Jahr NOR 231.5 3. Ulrike Greassler GER 229.0 4. Anette Sagen NOR 225.5 5. Izumi Yamada JPN 220.5 6. LIsa Demetz ITA 220.0 7. Daniela Iraschko AUT 219.5 8. Jessica Jerome USA 218.0 11. Alissa Johnson USA 208.0 16. Abby Hughes USA 189.0 L-R: Line, Lindsey, Ulrike. |
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March 5, 2006
Vikersund NOR
by Casey Colby
After one official training jump yesterday the jury decided to cancel things due to changing winds. One of the Norwegian girls, Linda Johanson, and Italian Lisa Demetz, both flipped over when a little air got on top of their skis over the knoll. Neither was badly hurt, although Linda was a bit too sore to compete today. Today was a long one. We had a training jump before the boys comp, then a long break before starting the trial round at 2:30pm. A couple exciting things going on today. After the trial round Lindsey came running across the parking lot saying she needed help. The two front screws on one of her bindings had both ripped completely out. When we took the cover off to expose the screws they were just laying on their side completely out of the holes. So I attempted to fix them for about 10 minutes, and when I was almost certain that they would hold, the ladies headed back up for the comp.
The first comp round had a little less wind but still had a little excitement. Juliane of GER had a great jump of 98 meters to lead of the heavy hitters, she would lead after the first round. Lindsey also had a good jump of 97 meters but this time her binding pulled out upon landing and her foot slid sideways and she fell in the curve. This left her in 13th place, and scrambling for a quick, mid-round, fix again. Jessica, Abby and Alissa all had jumps of 90.5, 89.5, and 90 meters respectively, putting them all in the top 11 and close enough in points to threaten for the top 6.
The 2nd round started with Lindsey making it to the top on time. She had a really good jump of 99 meters, but not such a great landing due to the fact that she wanted to stand this jump and not rip the binding out a 3rd time. She sat atop the leader board for a long time. Abby had another jump around the K-point, 90.5, Jessica who was in 6th place showed a decent distance but came up short of those other around her at 93 meters. Alissa had a really good jump while sitting in 9th place but backed out a bit too much and landed hard at 93.5 meters, crashing and hitting her head a little harder than she had hoped. Had she stuck with it she could have been one of the longest jumps, if not the longest, of the round.
The team is a little worse for wear this evening but they are still in good shape for the last event of the season on Wednesday night.
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Results from today: 1. Juliane Seyfahrt GER 2. Anette Sagen NOR 3. Line Jahr NOR 4. Izumi Yamada JPN 5. Lindsey Van USA 5.Ulrike Graessler GER 10. Jessica Jerome USA 12. Abby Hughes USA 15. Alissa Johnson USA Pictured L-R: Anette, Juliane, Line, Izumi, Lindsey, Ulrike. Six women, five countries AGAIN ... Click to enlarge. |
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March 2, 2006
Zao JPN
by Casey Colby
& Alissa Johnson
Casey's comments:
More like winter today, some new snow, instead of rain, and much colder temperatures.
The boys jumped before us this morning and once the ladies started their event, without a trial
round, we realized that the girls had less speed than the boys, oops. With decent wind on the
knoll and nothing after 45 meters, it was really tough, making the jumps much shorter for the
first round. But once the jury figured out the wind and the speed it got a lot more exciting
and fun for everyone. There was also a bigger crowd today and even more press and TV people.
The jumping today had a little bit of a yo-yo effect for some folks. Most people had one good jump and weird jump, due to the ever changing conditions from the top to the bottom of the jump. We have been in a big rush since the event ended because we are in need of packing up and getting on a bus for 6 hours to get back to Tokyo for our flight to Norway.
Another very impressive day for the American Ladies, and the 3rd win for Lindsey this season, and it was the best finish and first podium for Japan's Izumi Yamada.
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Results from today: 1. Lindsey Van USA 2. Anette Sagen NOR 3. Izumi Yamada JPN 4. Juliane Seyfahrt GER 5. Alissa Johnson USA 6. Daniela Iraschko AUT 9. Jessica Jerome USA 12. Abby Hughes USA 13. Brenna Ellis USA Pictured L-R: Anette, Lindsey, Izumi, Juliane, Alissa, Daniela. Six women, five countries ... this is good for women's ski jumping! Click image to enlarge. |
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Konnichiha (Atsuko guarantees us that the spelling is correct).
Today was the last day of our competitions in Japan. The weather wasn't great, but it was a big improvement from yesterday. I have really enjoyed my time here in Japan and I wish we weren't leaving. The hotel we have been staying in has been much nicer than we all expected. It's kind of old fashioned, you have to take of your shoes before you walk into the room, the floors are all bamboo, and we all stayed in one room with roll out mats on the floor. The hotel is also right in the middle of the ski run, and YES! we did take a couple of runs after our official training. FOOD is AWSOME! So, Basically we all hope to come back next year.
AS for the competition, things went off fairly smooth considering the poor weather. The hill crew did a great job all week keeping the hills in great shape considering how many jumpers there were (also a men's FIS CUP).
Today, I had my best finish so far in my career (5th), and Lindsey took home gold again for the US. Jessica struggled with wind in the first round, and had a mediocre day, finishing in 9th. Abby had one poor jump followed by one awesome jump and moved up four spots to 12th. Brenna took home 13th for the second day in a row.
Now we are all heading for Tokyo for the night in order to catch our plane to Norway tomorrow afternoon. Don't worry its only 13 hour flight, should be a good time. As for me, I'll have been in 6 countries in two weeks, still feeling a bit under the weather but am having a good time.
March 1, 2006
Zao JPN
by Casey Colby
& Lindsey Van
Casey's comments:
First time in Japan for the ladies and the organizers are very excited to have them. Totally different
style of food and sleeping on the floor in traditional Japanese style, lots of fish and rice to eat,
and a lot of things eaten that nobody knows anything about. Our USA/CAN/ITA tmixed team here is coping
very well and enjoying the change and cultural differences, other teams are not so excited about the
very different lifestyle. It is interesting to watch the different reactions. Some of the ladies
actually recognize a few of the boys that are jumping here at the same time, names like Kasai, Miyahira,
and Funaki.
Today, however, was not a picture perfect day. The forecast was for snow, and it was correct, for about an hour or two. That is when it warmed up and started to rain. It was a light rain for most of the day, but it was enough to concern the hill crew who were busy cutting huge drainage channels across the inrun track minutes before the trial round. So by the comp rounds it was a little slushy and soft, like spring skiing.
It was a pretty fair comp, only a few folks getting an extra hint of wind, which amounted to a lack of tailwind on the knoll as opposed to actual headwind. Nothing too exciting about this competition except the fact there were 5 more Japanese girls in the event than in any previous comp, amounting to 10 total.
Due to the slow speeds, rain, warm temps and slight tailwind the distances were not too impressive. Taking into consideration that the guys had better air and no rain, the girls only had about 1-1.5 kms more. (in training the speeds were the same) Technique on the take-off was the most important today. The ladies that were keeping shin angle and still jumping on the very end of the table (instead of snapping back) were way out in front of the crowd, as you will see by the point spread in the results.
Lindsey's win today makes her only the 3rd different winner on the COC winter tour, but there
have been 6 winners in total this 05-06 COC season compared to only 3 in the 04-05 season.
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Soggy results are as follows: 1. Lindsey Van USA 221.0 2. Anette Sagen NOR 215.5 3. Jessica Jerome USA 182.5 - T 3. Jaqui Seifriedsberger AUT 182.5 - T 5. Juliane Seyfahrt GER 181.5 6. Izumi Yamada JPN 175.0 7. Line Jahr NOR 174.0 8. Lisa Demetz ITA 172.0 9. Yoshiko Kasai JPN 167.5 10. Abby Hughes USA 165.0 - T 10. Alissa Johnson USA 165.0 - T 12. Katie WIllis CAN 154.0 14. Atsuko Tanaka CAN 150.5 15. Brenna Ellis USA 146.0 Pictured L-R: Abby, Jessica, Brenna, Alissa, Lindsey - Downhillers? Click to enlarge! |
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Lindsey's comments: Japan, wow what a different culture. This place is so interesting, and such a cool experience. The first night we stayed near Tokyo, and went out for sushi. This was real sushi, not the American style. Still very good, and we were all forced to try some different foods. We drove to Zao, which was a 7 hour drive northwest of Tokyo.
We have been staying at a hotel on a ski mountain. The food is very traditional, and we are served 8 courses most of it unknown to us. No beds, just mats on the floor. Very comfortable actually. Since we are staying on a ski mountain we all got the experience to do some downhill skiing in a different country. The equipment was about 10 years old, which made the experience all the more interesting. I was very surprised nobody was injured, what a successful day.
Today was the competition in Zao. Its a k90. This hill is skied at very low speeds, which makes it very different from the jumping at home in Park City. The weather was warm, and that caused the track to be a bit sticky. The weather made the jumping a bit harder, but we were still able to hold the competition. There was a thick fog and from the top you couldn't see the jumper leave the inrun, but there was no wind. In the first round, the conditions were very difficult, but we all had middle of the road jumps.
The weather was the same in the second round, and the track felt like a suction cup. All the American girls had better jumps, adjusting to the weather. Brenna was 15th, Alissa and Abby tied for 10th, Jessica was third tied with the younger Austrian, Anette Sagen 2nd, and I won the competition. I was happy to the win the competition, I had better jumps and was able to handle the conditions, despite the staph infection on my face. It was a good day for the Americans with 4 in the top 10 and 2 in the top 3. Japan rules; it is such an awesome experience to travel the world and jump.
February 15, 2006
Saalfelden AUT
by Brenna Ellis
On our way to Saalfelden for the competition this week we dropped Casey, Abby, and Elisabeth off at the airport so our team was cut down to four girls for the last two competitions on the tour. After dropping them off and getting into Austria, our sit-in coach, Fabian Ebenhoch, had to take Alissa to the doctor because she was feeling very sick. We found out that she had mono and would not be able to compete for the last two events. So within 2 days our team was cut from 6 girls to 3.
We had open training yesterday and that didn’t go so well for a lot of people. The inrun here is very long, bumpy and flat, it felt like a little roller coaster. On top of having very little speed. It has been snowing quite a bit over here, so there was a ton of snow on the knoll. This hill that is usually a higher flying hill was now super low flying. There were very few jumps over about 60 meters, but Jessica and Lindsey were two of the few making it over the knoll. So many girls would come down just laughing because they were going so short, me being one of those girls.
But then today in the competition things got a little better, more girls were making it over the knoll after they had had a few jumps to figure out how you had to fly on this hill. There were only 30 girls competing here so there was no cut for the second round. After the first round I was sitting in 12th place, Jessica was in 5th place and Lindsey was in 2nd place. We all had alright second round jumps. Lindsey finished 2nd, Jessica in 4th, and I was in 11th.
It was a good competition. We only have one more over here, in Breitenberg, before we go home for a little break. Then we'll be heading to Japan.
February 12, 2006
Schoenwald GER - Team Event - US Wins!
by Casey Colby
& Lindsey Van
Casey's comments:
Team event today in Schonwald GER. The USA was the odds-on favorite, especially after yesterday's
amazing individual results of 4 US athletes in the top 6 and another not far behind in 13th. So
the team that was officially representing the USA was Lindsey, Jessica, Abby and Alissa. Brenna
and Elisabet paired up with two Austiran ladies for a mixed team that is not officially allowed
to win but we were able to get their scores and figure out what their placing could have been.
In a totally fair competition we got pretty much what was expected. Anette Sagen set a new ladies hill record with a great jump of 93 meters in the first round. The Germans were in a pretty close 2nd place after the first round, 12 points behind. But the ladies fromt eh US made it very difficult for anyone to make up any ground. Each skier is ranked within their individual seed. Alissa was ranked 2nd both rounds in her seed, Abby won both rounds, Jessica was 2nd and 1st, and Lindsey, in the final seed had ranks of 3 and 2. It is hard to beat a team that has rankings like that against the other athletes head to head.
Brenna and Elisabeth also had some good jumps. Brenna had ranks of 4 and 2 in the 3rd seed against the same skiers as Jessica, and Elisabeth had two of her best jumps all weekend in in the competition. Pictured L-R: Germany (2nd), USA (1st), Norway Team (3rd).
Lindsey's comments:
The weather could not have been better; blue skies and no wind. Every coach predicted a win from
the U.S. girls. The team consisted of Alissa, Abby, Jessica, and Lindsey. Brenna and Elisabeth
were put on a mix team with two Austrian girls. In the first round we were all at the top of our
seeds putting us far ahead of the other teams. In the first round Anette Sagen set a new hill
record of 93 meters. The mixed team which included Brenna and Elizabeth were ranked 5th after
the first round. All of the U.S. girls had good jumps in both rounds to take the win with a
large margin of 35 points. Germany was in 2nd, Norway 3rd. The mixed team with the other U.S.
girls and Austria capped off the day in 4th place. It was another good day for the girls from
the United States.
Official results for the only team competition of the season:
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1. USA - 939 points Alissa Johnson Abby Hughes Jessica Jerome Lindsey Van
2. GER - 904
3. NOR - 850
4. USA/AUT mix team - 839.5 |
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February 11, 2006
Schoenwald GER - Individual
by Casey Colby
& Jessica Jerome
Casey's comments:
After another day of canceled training due to too much snow, we had 3 training jumps this morning
before the comp. There was a good headwind for the entire day, probably the most fair event I have
ever been a part of that had headwind.
The US ladies came out of the blocks with their game-faces on. Each of the rounds everyone improved, all 6 of them. After the first round it was a really tight competition. Lindsey was 2nd, Alissa 3rd tied with Sagen, Jessica was tied for 7th, Abby was tied for 11, Brenna 15, and Elisabeth was out-styled by a young Japanese, and just missed the cut.
The Ladies made some big moves for the 2nd and final round. Brenna had a jump to the K-point and moved up 2 places. Abby had a really good jump of 88.5, Jessica had the 2nd best jump of the final round to move up, Alissa did not have a great jump, 81.5 meters, but her first jump of 88.5 was by far her best effort of the trip so far. Lindsey managed to hold onto her place with a jump of 88.5 and the best style of the competition.
Awesome day for the USA Ladies. A lot of people come up to congratulate me for a great day. But the ladies are the ones that do the amazing stuff. Still it sure feels good to hear people ask "how do you get them all to do it that well?" Pictured at Schoenwald L-R: Lindsey, Jessica, Abby, Alissa, Elisabeth, Brenna.
Jessica's comments:
The conditions in Schoenwald were actually much better than they had been in the past years.
The track was fairly smooth and the air was consistent for the most part. After the first round,
the farthest jump was 92.5m, set by Julianne Seyfahrt (GER), which was a new hill record.
The air for the second round was, again, pretty tame, and none of us had any problems jumping to
the bottom of the hill. We finished with 4 Americans in the top 6.
Today's results:
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1. Juliane Seyfahrt GER (first COC win) 2. Lindsey Van USA - T 2. Anette Sagen NOR - T 4. Jessica Jerome USA 5. Abby Hughes USA 6. Alissa Johnson USA 11. Atsuko Tanaka CAN 13. Brenna Ellis USA 17. Katie Wills CAN 26. Nata DeLeeuw CAN
Official season standings: |
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February 9, 2006
Baiersbronn GER
by Casey Colby
After a somewhat disappointing finish in Slovenia, we drove back to Munich and picked up the 3 older ladies at the airport and headed west. We spent a night in Hiterzarten and had a great day of training for all six ladies on the K-95. The Canadians joined us in the afternoon before we headed to Baiersbronn for the 3rd COC of the winter season. Since we have arrived in Bairesbronn we have done very little. Our official training was scheduled for Wednesday evening but there was too much snow and wind to have any type of quality training so the training jumps were moved to Thursday afternoon, a few hours before the competition. So Thursday arrived and it was still dumping snow, I would guess about 40cm worth of snow fell on the jump in the past 48 hours, but down here in town it was mixed with rain and sleet. The training jumps were again postponed until just prior to the event because hill prep took longer than expected.
So the evening started out with a training round followed by the trial round. Conditions were pretty good for most people, again there were a few unlucky skiers in each round that get a small gust of tailwind but the majority of the skiers had a fair chance.
After two good training jumps of around 75-76 meters Elisabeth had a little extra trouble in the first round and jumped 70.5 meters. She was in the unlucky spot of being the lady in 31st place after the first round. Brenna was one of the few that was unlucky with the wind and was also a bit late on the take-off causing her to lose 5 meters or more on her first jump as well, putting her in 24th place.
After the first round USA and Canada: Nata 13th, Alissa 11th, Katie 9th, Atsuko 8th, Abby 7th, Jess 4th(tied) and Lindsey was leading after Anette Sagen laid down on her back after landing a jump of 97 meters, 5 more than the next longest jump.
In the second round Brenna made a big leap that was the 7th best jump of the round and moved up a bunch of places. Alissa had some bad air but still had really good style and only lost a few spots. Abby was as solid as a rock and had two good consistent jumps, but her style on the 2nd jump was 7 points better than the first. It is amazing what a little telemark landing can do now-a-days in these close comps. Jessica (with her best style points in a long time) and Lindsey also had two good jumps each but were edged out a little bit by two great performances by Anette Sagen and Juliane Seyfahrt. Juliane jumped 98 meters in the final round and Anette jumped 95.5 which put them both just ahead of Lindsey who had a little trouble on the landing at 92.5 meters.
Today's Results:
1. Anette Sagen NOR 261
2. Juliane Seyfahrt GER 259.5
3. Lindsey Van USA 254.5
4. Elena Runggaldier ITA 246.5
5. Jessica Jerome USA 246
6. Line Jahr NOR 244
7. Abby Hughes USA 228
8. Atsuko Tanaka CAN 222
9. Ayumi Watase JPN 216
10. Lisa Demetz ITA 215.5
11. Katie Willis CAN 213.5
11. Ulrike Grassler GER 213.5
13. Brenna Ellis USA 208
14. Alissa Johnson USA 206.5
17. Nata DeLeeuw CAN 199.5
31. Elisabeth Anderson USA
Overall Ranking (unofficially):
1. Sagen NOR
2. Van USA
3. Jerome USA
4. Jahr NOR
5. Tanaka CAN
6. Hughes USA
11. Johnson USA
14. Ellis USA
16. Willis CAN
33. DeLeeuw CAN
45. Anderson USA
February 9, 2006
Baiersbronn GER
by Abby Hughes
After a 2 day blizzard and canceling 2 scheduled Official Trainings we finally knocked off the first Continental Cup (COC) of the 4 hills tour in Baiersbronn GER. At least the competition didn't get canceled because waiting around all day to find out you only get to wait longer is not too much fun, and that's what happened on Jessica's 19th birthday on Wednesday.
I must say the most interesting part of Baiersbronn isn't the ski jump or the hotel and people, it was the food. We had fried pancakes one night for dinner and a piece of white wonder bread with a slice of ham and pineapple covered in cheese (Casey's FAVORITE!) and then a cherry on top. But enough about the food!
The competition was surprisingly really good considering they had received over a foot of new snow during the blizzard. After the first round Lindsey was leading, and we were all pretty excited about that, but unfortunately Anette Sagen from Norway and Juliane Seyfahrt from Germany had incredible second jumps. Juliane jumped 98 meters, breaking the old hill record on the K85, HS90. As for the Americans we finished pretty well as a team. Lindsey came in 3rd, Jessica 5th, Abby 7th, Brenna 13th (24th after the first round) Alissa placed 14th and Elisabeth barely missed the cut at 31st. well cya later!
February 8, 2006
Park City UT ABC World News Tonight
WSJUSA athletes interviewed by John Quinones
Lindsey Van, Jessica Jerome, Alissa Johnson
Three jumpers from Women's Ski Jumping USA were recently interviewed by ABC's John Quinones in Park City. The segment was aired this evening on World News Tonight. The focus of the story was the exclusion of women from ski jumping at the Olympics ... the only sports that do not include women are ski jumping and Nordic combined. Not only was the video exceptional in both commentary (by Quinones and the girls), it showed a segment of young girls learning on a small hill ... something rarely seen in coverage of the sport. The lead-in comments by Charlie Gibson, and the closing comments by Elizabeth Vargas and Gibson are just perfect! Our hats are off to ABC and to Lindsey, Jessica, and Alissa for presenting such a positive picture of our sport. View ABC video!
February 5, 2006
Kranj SLO Junior World Championships
by Casey Colby
If it were not for bad luck we would have no luck at all.
After two days of decent training, in varying conditions, it came time for competition day. The ladies had respectable trial jumps and were ready for the comp to begin. The wind was not consistent on the jump. It was pretty dead when we started, but then it picked up headwind for a handful of girls with low bib numbers giving them a great advantage. Our US ladies were in the middle of the order and the wind completely died right after Elisabeth's jump. It actually started to turn to tailwind for the middle group of ladies and this had a pretty big effect on Katie Willis (CAN), Brenna and Abby's first competitive jump. The tailwind slowed a bit for the end of the round which of course helped. There were a couple of athletes in the late bibs that jumped 10 meters farther than any other jump they had in training. The only Nor-Am in a good position after the 1st round was Atsuko, who was in second position with a good jump of 105.5 meters. Juliane Seyfahrt was in the lead with a jump of 109 meters.
The US ladies headed up for the 2nd round with a little faith that things can turn around pretty easily with a good jump. Elisabeth pulled herself onto the bar and then had to wait for the yellow light for 40 seconds before she was given the green. It was very bad tailwind and they forced her to go. The next skier was put on the bar and then taken off because the conditions were so bad. Ironically the conditions had improved since Elisabeth was forced to jump. At this point I complained, as did a couple of other coaches, about the jury waiting until after they realized a mistake was made before slowing down and waiting for more consistent conditions. Brenna was the next to go for the USA and she too had a better jump but the conditions were just terrible for this middle group again, and she wound up jumping about 10 meters shorter than all of her other jumps the whole weekend.
It is a very tough pill to swallow when the ladies have better jumps and land shorter than their previous jumps because of the conditions. Abby had a much better 2nd jump but landed just past the 90 meter mark. At this point I am not a happy coach on the coaches stand and you can imagine my frustration. However, I had the help of 3 other countries complaining about the wind conditions for the US athletes and the AUT athlete. Skiers were not getting equal conditions, and it was very obvious as we watched them have better jumps but shorter distances.
In the end Atsuko had to earn her meters in the 2nd round but still managed to finish in 2nd place behind Juliane Seyfahrt of GER, who is jumping great. She won every single round this week in competition and training so she definitely deserves the win. And it was easily the best day in the ITA ladies ski jumping history with their finishes today. Pictured L-R: Brenna, Abby, Elisabeth
1. Juliane Seyfahrt GER
2. Atsuko Tanaka CAN
3. Elena Runggaldier ITA
4. Lisa Demetz ITA
5. Roberta D'Agostina ITA
6. Jacqi Seifriedsberger AUT
7. Eva Logar SLO
8. Abby Hughes USA
9. Katie Willis CAN
10. Vladka Pustkova CZE
13. Nata DeLeeuw CAN
16. Brenna Ellis USA
20. Elisabeth Anderson USA
Maja Vtic of Slovenia had a crash on the outrun in the trial round. She hit the "rock-hard" hill pretty hard and then did a couple of spins and rolls before coming to a stop. After being checked out for a long time by the medical crew she limped back to changing cabin but was unable to compete. Hopefully she can take a week off and return to the COC events in AUT and GER next week.
Tomorrow we head to Munich to pick up the older ladies and then head to the Black Forest for 2 COC events and a team competition.
January 18, 2006
Toblach/Dobbiaco ITA Ladies' Continental Cup
by Jessica Jerome
The competition in Toblach went a little smoother than the one in Ljubno, considering we all received our ski bags, and we weren't stressing out about the equipment we didn't have. The hill was in great shape too, despite our complaints that it was only a K-67. The conditions were pretty consistent and fair for the most part. After the first round, Lisa Demetz, an Italian girl, was leading. We were all very excited for her, since we were in her home country. As for everyone else, the top 6 places were really tight, with only a few points from 1st to 6th. Most of our jumps improved slightly in the second round. Here are the results from Toblach/Dobbiaco:
1. Anette Sagen NOR
2. Lisa Demetz ITA
3. Jessica Jerome USA
6. Lindsey Van USA
9. Abby Hughes USA
10. Alissa Johnson USA
12. Brenna Ellis USA
January 14, 2006
Ljubno SLO Ladies' Continental Cup
by Brenna Ellis
Today was the competition in Ljubno, Slovenija. We were unable to jump in official training due to all of our ski bags getting lost on the way over here. Luckily Jessica, Lindsey, and Alissa all had new skis from Elan waiting for them over here, so with a couple of phone calls they were able to get new bindings and have them ready for competition. Abby and I on the other hand didn't have new skis so we borrowed some from a couple of the forejumpers. In the end we all had skis and anything else that we needed to jump, thanks to a few of the other competitors who gladly let us use their extra stuff!
The hill was a bit different, but for the most part it was pretty fun. It is a K-85 so it was a lot more fun to jump on than some of the smaller hills we jump on. At the end of the day everything seemed to work itself out!
Our ski bags finally arrived this evening, after the competition, and we are going to train in Kranj, SLO for the next two days. It will be nice for all of us to be back on our own stuff!
Here are the unofficial results from today!
1. Anette Sagen NOR 214.5
2. Lindsey Van USA 207
3. Jenna Mohr GER 194
4. Lisa Demetz ITA 190
5. Daniela Iraschko AUT 184
6. Maja Vtic SLO 179.5
6. Juliane Seyfahrt GER 179.5
8. Ulrike Grassler GER 178.5
9. Brenna Ellis USA 171.5
10. Jessica Jerome USA 170.5
16.Abby Hughes USA 156.5
21. Alissa Johnson USA 144.5
November 16, 2005
Park City UT
This time of year we are just waiting for winter to arrive. We are experiencing a little longer break than we had anticipated between the summer and winter seasons but we are still in full training mode. The snow is finally here in Park City so we should be jumping by Thanksgiving on the big hills.
Due to the August and October Continental Cup periods for the ladies this summer, their training was broken up in very different phases than in the past. So right now we are trying to plug the holes that were left in the training plan from all of the travel and competitions this past summer with a larger focus on the physical aspect.
The winter season for the US ladies begins in Lake Placid after Christmas and in Park City Jan 6-8, for the Jr. ladies to qualify for the first ever FIS World Junior Championships to be held in Kranj, SLO. The the COC season begins in mid January, 14-21, with a stop in a neighboring Slovenian town of Ljubno, Dobbiacho ITA and one other event TBD in Austria.
The World Jr. Championships take place the first week of February and the USA ladies have some great chances for great results.
October 9, 2005
Lake Placid USA Ladies' Continental Cup
Our 2nd COC event in LP took place on Sunday afternoon. The jury delayed the start of the competition for about an hour because the wind was blowing pretty hard at times. But, at 2:15pm the jury turned on the green light and everything went forward as planned, except there was no trial round. Directly into the first comp round makes things a little tougher for the athletes, no practice jump to feel things out and the need to have good jumps right away.
The wind was a factor in the event but it was the most consistent head wind that I have ever dealt with for a competition, everyone had good air. The first round was capped off with Anette Sagen having a very good jump and leading everyone by 5 meters at 98.5 meters, much like Atsuko did on Saturday. However, Atsuko had some bad timing on her first jump today and only managed a jump of 82 meters. Our top US ladies had pretty solid first jumps and were scattered between 3-8, with Karla and Brenna around the 20 mark.
The 2nd round was the same as the first, a little bit less wind at the bottom of the jump but it was still very good wind for everyone. In the middle of the round the German skier Juliane Seyfahrt had what looked like a serious crash/flip. She did the same thing on Friday morning, her skis are turned very much on edge as she goes over the knoll and the ski simply shears through the air and flips her over. Fortunately she jumped right up and walked away without any injury or problems.
Not too many things made the round more exciting than the Juliane's crash until Atsuko jumped into the track. She had a much better jump and managed to move herself up 8 places in the competition when she landed a jump of 96.5 meters, 7 meters better than the next longest jump of the round. The results were as follows:
1. Anette Sagen NOR
2. Line Jahr NOR
3. Atsuko Tanaka CAN
4. Izumi Yamada JPN
5. Jessica Jerome USA
6. Lindsey Van USA
9. Alissa Johnson USA
10. Abby Hughes USA
20. Brenna Ellis USA
21. Karla Keck USA
After this weekend the unofficial overall is as follows.
1. Anette Sagen NOR
2. Line Jahr NOR
3. Lindsey Van USA
4. Jessica Jerome USA
5. Atsuko Tanaka CAN
6. Maja Vtic SLO
7. Abby Hughes USA
9. Alissa Johnson USA
14. Katie Willis CAN
17. Brenna Ellis USA
36. Karla Keck USA
October 8, 2005
Lake Placid USA Ladies' Continental Cup
The weather in LP was mid-summer like for the first few days this week, but as it is as if someone hit the light switch the last couple of days and turned down the heat and brought on the rain. Fortunately the majority of the rain has been falling at night so we have not had to fight through too much jumping in the rain.
Today's event was very fast for the ladies with the usual players in the hunt. There were 11 ladies representing the USA today, 5 for the first time ever, the most I believe that we have had in our 5 COC event history between PC and LP.
After trying to get all the equipment squared for the last couple of days for our rookies we thought we had most of it dialed in and ready to go. This morning we cut Karin's skis to the correct size only to discover that the bindings were more than 2cm too far back in their original mounting position. So we re-mounted the skis just before the competition only to have the strap fall out of one ski on her trial round. She landed and everything was okay and the problem was quickly solved by Scott Smith before the first comp round.
Atsuko led the first round with a really nice jump, 99 meters, 5.5 meters ahead of the 2nd longest jump, but her telemark was lacking a little bit and she was only in the lead by 2.5 points. The USA girls had some ground to make up after the first round. Technically the jumps were pretty good but the few times there was any air moving around the hill it was not with our best interests at hand, and the super low pressure system did not help the situation. The biggest bummer of the day was the disqualifications that occurred after the first comp round. Nina Lussi, Tara Geraghty-Moats, Karin Friberg, and Faye Stratford were all DSQ'ed for the suit regulations. Somewhere the suit was a little bit too big on them.
The 2nd round was the same as the first round, nothing out of the ordinary. Alissa had a better 2nd jump and moved up 5 places into the top 10, and just about everyone else stayed about the same for the final results.
1. Anette Sagen NOR
2. Daniela Iraschko AUT
3. Ulrike Graessler GER
4. Atsuko Tanaka CAN
5. Izumi Yamada JPN
6. Line Jahr NOR
7. Jessica Jerome USA
8. Maja Vtic SLO
9. Lindsey Van USA
10. Alissa Johnson USA
11. Abby Hughes USA
18. Karla Keck USA
23. Brenna Ellis USA
25. Elisabeth Anderson USA (first top 30 result)
The overall rankings for the season are getting pretty tight. Anette is out in front of everyone by a large margin but behind her the scores are really close and everyone has to be in top form to maintain their position. Here are the unofficial standings:
1. Anette Sagen NOR
2. Lindsey Van USA
3. Jessica Jerome USA
4. Line Jahr NOR
5. Atsuko Tanaka CAN
6. Maja Vtic SLO
7. Abby Hughes USA
10. Alissa Johnson USA
14. Brenna Ellis USA
33. Avery Ardovino USA
39. Karla Keck USA
42. Elisabeth Anderson USA
43. Brittany Rhoads USA
October 2, 2005
Park City USA Ladies' Continental Cup
2nd day of competition here in Park City was an exciting one. The men's event had to deal with some changing wind conditions in the morning and was eventually stopped in the middle of the final round, making the first round the only competitive round. Clint Jones finished a strong 2nd place putting him in 2nd place overall for the season.
The ladies ran through the trial round with some changing conditions, but relatively fair for all. After the first 6-7 competitors had already jumped in the first round the jury decided to restart the round due to some strange conditions. After 3 more skiers came down the jury decided to postpone the entire event for about an hour. This turned out to be a very good decision on the part of the jury because the wind became more consistent as the afternoon progressed. After the first round the scores were pretty close. The first 6 skiers were within 7 points; Graessler (GER), Sagen (NOR) Jerome (USA) tied, Tanaka (CAN), Van (USA), Vtic (SLO).
The 2nd and final round shuffled the deck in favor of North America. Brenna and Avery had a bit of an off day today, Alissa had a some decent jumps but not her best of the week and Abby was 7th after the first round but fell a little short on her second jump. It was a day where just a little mistake made a big difference and that is where a couple of our ladies got in trouble. Lindsey, again, had the best jump of the day in the 2nd round and moved up a few places, also having the best style again. Jessica, who had the longest jump of the trial round, had two good consistent jumps in the comp. But the biggest story of the day was that of our favorite little noise-maker from Canada, Atsuko Tanaka. She was 4th after the first round and had really been turning it on in the comps this summer. She seems to have the ability to just shrug off any pressure that a lot of athletes might feel when a position to do really well. Her final jump was the longest jump of the day at 95 meters and put the pressure on the remaining jumpers at the top of the hill. There were some good jumps from the final skiers but the results came out like this.
1. Atsuko Tanaka CAN 233.5
2. Jessica Jerome USA 231.5
3. Lindsey Van USA 230.0
4. Anette Sagen NOR 226.0
5. Ulrike Graessler GER 220.5
6. Maja Vtic SLO 214.0
10. Abby Hughes USA 197.5
14. Alissa Johnson USA 183.5
23. Brenna Ellis USA 135.5
24. Avery Ardovino USA 133.5
This is the 2nd individual win for Canada this season. It bodes well for the winter season to have such a strong summer series for these ladies from N. America. Congrats to all.
Un-official overall standings for the Ladies COC tour:
1. Anette Sagen NOR
2. Lindsey Van USA
3. Jessica Jerome USA
4. Line Jahr NOR
5. Atsuko Tanaka CAN
6. Abby Hughes USA
10. Katie Willis CAN
12. Alissa Johnson USA
14. Brenna Ellis USA
32. Avery Ardovino USA
41. Brittany Rhoads USA
October 1, 2005
Park City USA Ladies' Continental Cup
First international event of the season on our home soil was today in Park City. Things went incredibly well for Team USA. The wind played a big factor in both rounds. It would blow hard in one direction and then after a few skiers would go they would be pulling a skier off the bar because it was blowing too hard in the opposite direction. After the first round the US had Abby in 3rd, Alissa in 4th, Jess in 6th Lindsey in a tie for 9th, Brenna around the 15 mark, Avery was in 23rd and Brittany was 27th. All of the ladies had good jumps, but some of them had pretty bad luck with the wind.
The longest jump of the day was had by Canada's thirteen year old Atsuko Tanaka. With her teammate Katie WIllis sidelined by a crash and injury 2 days ago, Atsuko stepped up to the plate and jumped 99 meters in the first jump.
The second round was just as crazy as the first. Avery and Brenna had good 2nd jumps moving them both up in the standings. Next was Lindsey with a really good jump and some better luck with the wind, landing a jump at 98.5 meters. Jessica has been having good jumps this past week and had some more today. Unfortunately she was at a point in the start order both rounds where she had to deal with very poor wind conditions. From this point on in the round the wind was not favorable for anyone. Alissa had a good technical jump, as did Abby and they all had great final results.
The biggest problem during the event today was unfortunate for one competitor, Austria's Daniela Iraschko. In the final round, for reasons that are not fully understod by most of us, she did not get on the start to jump on time so she just waited until the timer and green light reset and she jumped during the 2nd green light. She was disqualified for not going on the green light the first time. That resulted in Lindsey's first Continental Cup win! She's pictured at left below, with Anette Sagen at right. The guy in the middle is your webmaster . . . click photo to enlarge (photo by John Rippinger, Schaumburg IL).
Final results:
1. Lindsey Van USA (first Continental Cup win)
2. Abby Hughes USA (best result ever)
3. Anette Sagen NOR
4. Atsuko Tanaka CAN (best result ever)
5. Line Jahr NOR
6. Alissa Johnson USA
7. Jessica Jerome USA
12. Brenna Ellis USA
19. Avery Ardovino USA
26. Brittany Rhoads USA
August 13 & 14, 2005
Meinerzhagen GER HS-65 (team event Saturday, individual Sunday)
A fast drive across Germany landed us in our final event destination. Saturday was the highly
anticipated team event. Once again the conditions were good, totally fair for all the skiers
and teams. (if you consider the Nor-Am teams having 7 of the top 14 overall spots fair) Normally
the coaches put up a few Euro's each and try to correctly guess the results of the top 6, but this
summer nobody wanted to make that bet, I think we all had the same picks. Anyhow, the comp started
with team USA listed on the start list backwards. Jessica being the top ranked skier for us, she
should have been in the final group, but she was first. And so each of the 4 groups had at least
one of the top 5 ranked athletes in it, making the day a little tougher for some folks. The US team
was made up of Jessica, Lindsey, Abby and Brenna. Then we had another mixed team that consisted of
Alissa, Katie, Atsuko, and the skier from Japan Yoshiko Kasai. Pictured above are Lindsey
Van (L) and Jessica Jerome (R).
The only exciting thing that happened in the first round was with Lindsey's jump. She was in the 2nd seed, therefore had more speed than she should have had. She had a good jump but as soon as she past the knoll she started backing off. She landed at 67 meters with a pretty audible thud, but she did manage to stay on her feet until she made it past the fall line, then crashed. The fall looked innocent enough from the coaches stand, just a dirty jumping suit for damage done. Then she tried to stand up on her own after taking her skis off and quickly stumbled three steps to the left and two jerky steps forward while the EMT tried to catch her. I thought for sure her day was over with a hit to the head that i hadn't seen happen. As she walked back up the hill they announced that the USA was in the lead by more than 20 points, not enough to have one of our skiers miss their 2nd jump and remain on top of the podium, or on the podium at all.
Fortunately the 20 minute break was long enough to make Lindsey realize that she was fine, just the victim of a headache, or at least that is what she told us. For the 2nd round there isn't anything to make mention of. A couple of the athletes from the other teams vying for the podium faltered a little bit, but our Ladies, USA and CAN held strong. At the end of the day the USA team stood on top of the podium almost 50 points clear of the 2nd place team from SLO, 3rd being Germany. Due to the mixing of countries on our other team they were not eligible for the official podium ceremony or consideration in the official results, HOWEVER, they would have been ranked 2nd overall. So that means the entire Nor-Am team took the top 2 spots of the team event with a little help from the lone Japanese girl.
Sunday was the individual event on the same hill. With the weather not cooperating very well it
poured rain all morning. The majority of our Nor-Am ladies skipped the trial round.
After the first competition round we had a little bad news. Abby had a pretty good jump but her
knee gave out on her when she landed, kind of a chronic growing pain problem with her knees, and
the leg just told her, in its own subtle way, that it was finished for the week. She crashed
immediately upon landing and slid off the plastic into the grass and mud. She still qualified
for the final round but was unable to take the final jump, leaving her in 30th place. Unfortunately
that one missed opportunity to score a few more points moved her from 6th to 10th in the official
COC overall ranking. But we would rather have her heal and be able to compete for the rest of the
season than do any lasting damage to her knee and confidence level by having her jump with pain.
Alissa had a better day, as she was managing to do with every event, Brenna had a mediocre jump which still left her in decent position, Jess, Lindsey and Katie were in the top 6, and Atsuko had a bad jump that left her in the high 20's.
The 2nd round was a tough round. Atsuko made up a few spots with a better jump, as did Brenna. Alissa moved up 4 spots with a very good 2nd jump, scoring her first top 10 this season. Katie missed the take off a little bit and fell a couple of spots, but remained in the top 10. While Jessica tried to fight off a Slovenian who had a great final jump, Lindsey set down the 3rd best jump of the round to maintain her position in the final results.
1 Anette Sagen NOR 248.9
2 Lisa Demetz ITA 244.1 (best result ever)
3 Lindsey Van USA 243.7
4 Maja Vtic SLO 240.8
5 Jessica Jerome USA 235.8
6 Melaine Faisst GER 231.0 (best result ever)
8 Alissa Johnson USA 225.0
10 Katie Willis CAN 224.7
13 Brenna Ellis USA 221.4
24 Atsuko Tanaka CAN 195.2
30 Abby Hughes USA 88.1 (no 2nd jump)
Overall so far in the COC rankings after 4 events the USA/CAN teams look very good taking 7 of the top 14 spots.
1 Anette Sagen NOR
2 Line Jahr NOR
3 Jessica Jerome USA
4 Lindsey Van USA
5 Katie Willis CAN
6 Maja Vtic SLO
8 Yoshiko Kasai JPN
9 Melanie Faisst GER
10 Abby Hughes USA
11 Brenna Ellis USA
12 Juliane Seyffarth GER
13 Alissa Johnson USA
14 Atsuko Tanaka CAN
The next set of events are on bigger hills that I think favor our Ladies more than most of the world because they train on K-90 and K-120 hills more than K-60 meter hills. So look for some good results in Park City October 1-2 and Lake Placid October 8-9.
August 11, 2005
Poehla GER HS-60
We had a good/bad day today. We spent almost 7 hours at the ski jump today because they did official training before the event, then took a long break before the trial and the first competition round, so everyone is quite tired. First I will get the bad news out of the way. great deal because so many jump the same distances.
After the first competition round Katie was disqualified because the shape of her ski tip was wrong. Her tip had to be cut down to fit her height last winter and cutting too much off the tip makes it the wrong shape. I did not recognize this because her skis are now too short for her, even if they were left at the original length, so it did not occur to me to check the tip. Had she been allowed to compete she would probably have been in the top 6-8 again.
This is a small hill, K-60, so pretty much anything can happen. Scores are tight, and style means a great deal because so many jump the same distances. Here are your official results:
1 Anette Sagen NOR 236.4
2 Line Jahr NOR 233.3
3 Jessica Jerome USA 233.2 (Jess had longer jumps, Line more style points)
4 LIndsey Van USA 224.6
5 Abby Hughes USA 222.9 (tie, best result ever)
5 Yoshiko Kasai JPN 222.9 (tie)
7 Melanie Faist GER 221.1
8 Maja Vtic SLO 219.8
9 Jaqueline Seifriedsberger AUT 219.6
10 Brenna Ellis USA 215.9
12 Alissa Johnson USA 213.2
17 Atsuko Tanaka CAN 204.2
Traveling tomorrow to North of Frankfurt for the team event on Saturday and the final individual event on Sunday for this trip.
August 9, 2005
Klingenthal GER HS-80
Monday was a day off that required us to drive about 6 hours north to Klingenthal, GER. Nothing exciting happened while we were on the road, which is a good thing in my mind. Late in the afternoon we went to see the construction site that is right in the town of Klingenthal where they are building their new K-120 jump. It is a great looking hill and a very "space-age" design for the inrun tower that includes a single support at the back of the tower and a warming room shaped like a tube that is suspended out into the air, anchored only on one side.
Tuesday we had a relaxing morning that finished with the annual alpine slide competition. Like the one that is being built at the ski jumps in Park City this track is steel, and it is fast. Everyone gets a couple of practice runs just for fun, then the timing lights get turned on for the official race times.
As bib #1 Lindsey was the first to go. She had a fast time, ultimately putting her in 6th place, but the real excitement started after she finished. The temps were chilly, and maybe aided by a little moisture in the air, caused Lindsey to somehow slide right over the 5 meter section that slows the sled down. As she approached the 90 degree turn at the bottom of the lift she was still motoring along at a pretty high rate of speed. As she went through the corner with far too much speed she, and the sled, was spun and thrown out of the track onto the wet, slippery muddy grass and rolled down about a 10 feet hill of weeds. After finding that she was relatively unhurt, my largest regret was having left my position a few minutes too early at the bottom to video from the top of the track, I missed a golden opportunity to say the least. In the end, there was a little carnage, but mostly a lot of fun. The Italians and Americans seem to have the right idea for fast times and dominated 7 of the top 10 spots.
So then came time to jump. We had 2 official training jumps, then a trial round, a short break and then the comp started. It was very fair conditions, almost no wind the entire evening. After the first round things were not what anyone had expected. During the training jumps 3 of our underdogs showed some amazing improvement. Atsuko Tanaka, Katie Willis (our two Canadian team members) and Brenna Ellis. The hard part would be to get them to react the same in the competition. But almost everything went as we had hoped.
After the first competitive round the result list looked like this: Leader: Katie Wilis, 4th Atsuko, 5th Brenna, 7th Jessica, 10th Abby, 16th Lindsey, 19th Alissa. Lindsey had a crash otherwise she too would have been in the top 8 as well. The 2nd round started with Lindsey uncorking the longest jump of the competition at 80 meters, moving her up 10 places to 6th place. Alissa had a strong jump and moved up, then came the final ten skiers. Abby had a strong jump, followed by Jessica who took over the lead, and held it for a while. Then the final 5 skiers made me pretty worried, none of these skiers have been in this situation before and I was not sure how they would react.
Brenna was first, and she another very good jump, leaving her just behind Jessica, who was leading still,
with only 4 skiers to go. Atsuko, who had the 3 best jumps I have ever seen her have up to this point
in the day, also had another great jump which placed her between Jess and Brenna. Then Anette Sagen,
2nd after the first round, had a good jump, just 2 meters short of Lindsey's longest jump of the day,
and she took the lead. I turned to look up the hill and there was Katie, sitting on the bar, the only
person on top of the tower. They gave her the green light and a huge roar came from the crowd, spurred
on by the big brother and her North American teammates. She headed down the inrun in what appeared to
be a relaxed position, this boded well for her. Katie had a great jump, equaling Lindsey and sharing
the longest jump of the competition at 80 meters. She was mobbed at the bottom of the jump by a number
of athletes from many countries. So to sum up this amazing day for the underdogs from the west-side of
the Atlantic, holding down six of the top eight places! Pictured are L to R, Jessica, Katie, Anette ...
click photo to enlarge view.
1 Katie Willis CAN
2 Anette Sagen NOR
3 Jessica Jerome USA
4 Atsuko Tanaka CAN
5 Line Jahr NOR
6 Brenna Ellis USA (tie)
6 Lindsey Van USA (tie)
8 Abby Hughes USA
Nice job Coaches Jindro, Gregor, Damian, Ted and any of the other Canadian coaches that I'm forgetting right now. Congratulations to all of you!
August 7, 2005
Bischofshofen AUT HS-65
Things went pretty well today. We had Official Training in the morning in the rain, so it set the mood for our very long, slow day. The Canadian skiers, Atsuko Tanaka and Katie Willis, were not able to train because their skis have been missing since they arrived on Friday. Fortunately Jan and Ken Willis tracked down the ski bag and went to pick it up in Salzburg, returning back to Bischofshofen 2 hours before the evening competition began. Perfect timing. We went through an amazingly long day of suit checking and sewing yesterday and fortunately everyone passed the tests today.
1 Line Jahr NOR 252.5
2 Anette Sagen NOR 251.7
3 Jessica Jerome USA 245.6
4 Lindsey Van USA 241.6
5 Maja Vtic SLO 240.9
6 Yoshiko Kasai JPN 227.9
7 Abby Hughes USA 227.8
9 Katie Willis CAN 219.6
14 Alissa Johnson USA 207.3
17 Brenna Ellis USA 197.9
25 Atsuko Tanaka CAN 171.6
26 Avery Ardovino USA 171.0
We thought we were in for a shock this morning as we had many of the US girls making some really good training jumps. In particular Avery who was ranked in the top 15 all 3 training rounds for distance, including 8th on the last round. She had a little trouble in the comps, but still showed great results for her first European event. Abby was in the top 5 all 3 training rounds in distance as well, and a solid 7th place finish tied her best results ever in international competition. All in all, a really good day with some great results and some really good experiences for the younger athletes. Klingenthal K-80 is next, on Tuesday.
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