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US Women's Ski Jumping ... 2007-08 (use BACK button to return to previous page)
Kjell Ivar Magnussen, Coach
www.usskiteam.com
www.womensskijumpingusa.com
January 5, 2008 The weekend in Vancouver was an experience different from many others. Canadian nationals went off quite well considering the new organizing staff up in the Callaghan Valley. These were their first competitions and a first test of the systems for the new facility. It snowed nonstop the entire time we were there. This made the competitions run in a different pattern than usual. We had to send jumpers faster than usual to beat the heavy snow falling into the track. It snowed almost 6 feet in our 5 days up in the Callaghan Valley. This made for a beautiful snow covered landscape, with the mountains, rivers, ocean, and tons of snow. The new hills were great. The big hill (120M) had great rhythm in the inrun, and the air pressure, something I don't get to expericence at home in Park City. The jumps were located at a much lower altitude, just over 800m, so the air was thicker than most places I get to jump. The thick air allows for great feeling in the air, almost like flying on a blanket. It was snowing hard during the big hill competition so we were taking all the speed we could get. I had some decent jumps that allowed me to get somewhat down the hill. The hill size on the big hill is 140m, but I didnt make it there. I jumped 128.5 and 117m. Stefan Read had some good jumps and set the hill record at 133m. Jessica Jerome showed strong jumps as well with one at 117m. Little Sarah Hendrickson had her first big hill competition and jumped great. She looked so small but so high going over the knoll, and it was really cool to watch. She jumped 100m. Zoya Lynch pulled out some long jumps to be the Canadian National Champion. On the normal hill it was snowing again, as well as some weird winds. The wind was all over place, which made it a hard competition for the jury to control. My first competition jump was quite lucky with the wind. It could not have been any better. I had one of the better jumps of the weekend so I was able to take advantage of the conditions. I jumped 105.5m, and was happy just to land the jump. Jessica Jerome had the 2nd longest jump of the day at 102m, and I saw her first podium celebration ever. It was exciting to see her psyched with one of her jumps. The boys had some really weird tailwind and tough condidtions at the end of the round, but Stefan Read jumped 101m in the trial round. Chris Lamb won the competition on the normal hill for the men, and he was using borrowed boots. Atsuko Tanaka, in third, was the top Canadian female on the small hill. Overall the weekend was a good experience. It was fun to get to participate on the first competitions on the new Olympic hills. I am pleased to hold the hill record for the time being, but I don't see it standing for too long. I hope I get to go back sometime soon to jump there again, but I hope it will be sunny. I would like to see the surrouding mountains and make some longer jumps.
December 18, 2007 We just returned back to the states from a great camp in Lillehammer. The first few days there we trained on the K90 which was an alright hill, just getting a few training jumps before going to our competitions in Notodden. The town was really cute, we didn't really do too much other than a session in the gym and a few sessions on the hill with some of the club kids. It was a great way to start the trip adjusting from the jet lag and getting some quality training on a good hill. Since our competitions were canceled in Finland due to lack of snow, we decided it would be more productive for us to come back to Lillehammer rather than returning to the USA. This camp turned out to be more fun than the last. When we got to the jumps the first day back, there were a few World Cup guys training with their teams, a few Austrians, a few Germans, and a couple Norwegians. It was so much fun to train alongside them and watch a few of them jump really far. We got to train on the big hill this time; we all throughly enjoyed training on that hill, and I think we could all call it one of our favorites! All and all both training camps were a lot of fun and we got some really good training in on some great hills!
December 12, 2007 The first competition of the winter is always interesting. It's been over three months since anybody has competed in Continental Cup and the jumping is always different. Some people make large improvements while others slide the other way. The first competition was in Notodden Norway just a bit south of Oslo. The competition was held at night, and it was pretty chilly. Good thing we had to hike or we would have all been frozen. The first round showed some good jumping from some different nations. The young girl from Finland made vast improvements over the summer and was able to score her first Continental Cup points. The girls from the Netherlands also both scored points. It was good to see some other nations in the top 20, and it's really great for our sport. All the athletes from the US made the 2nd round, so that's always a good start. Brenna was 28th, Avery 25th, Jessica 7th, and I was 2nd after the first round. Anette Sagen jumped 98.5m, to lead the first round. Brenna had a longer jump at 80m, to end in 28th. Avery had a much better 2nd jump 18th that round and she ended in 24th place. Jess jumped 87.5m, and ended the day in 9th place. I jumped 95 and 95.5 meters and ended in 2nd place. I think we were all happy with the day, but all know we can improve for the comps in the future. It was a good start, but it's a long season. Anette Sagen won by 6.5 pts, and Jaque the Austrian was third place.
August-September 2007: |