Kuhn Delivers in Lake Placid, Taking Home Third; Krueger Snags Career Best Result
For the final FIS Aerials World Cup of the 2025-26 season, and the final competition before the Olympic Winter Games, the world’s best traveled to Lake Placid, NY, for two days of competition at the Lake Placid Ski Jumping Complex, for the Stifel Lake Placid Freestyle Cup presented by iHeartRadio. On the first day of jumping, three Americans landed a spot in finals and Kaila Kuhn was back on the individual podium in third, for the first time since 2021.
It was a clear, sunny day in the Adirondacks, with a slight breeze and cold temperatures, which turned out to be in the athletes' favor… until the finals, when the snow started to fall heavily. Yet, that didn’t stop the field.
In the qualification round, the women went first. Kuhn, the 2025 World Champion, was the top American qualifier in fifth, throwing a lay-full-full, while Winter Vinecki, who had back-to-back podiums last weekend, threw the same trick and qualified ninth. U.S. athletes Kyra Dossa, Karenna Elliott, Dani Loeb, Tasia Tanner, Catherine McEnaney and Amelia Glogowski also jumped in qualification, but did not advance to finals.
For the men, Derek Krueger led the way, qualifying 12th, with a full-full-full. Krueger was the only American to qualify. Quinn Dehlinger, who has already pre-qualified for the Olympic Winter Games, did not compete today. He took a fall during training and decided to withdraw to focus on recovery. He is okay. Connor Curran, Chris Lillis, Ashton Salwan, Beaudin Napolitano, Scott Kane, Ian Schoenwald, and Gavin Canzano did not advance to the finals. Canzano at only 15 years old, made his World Cup debut.
Into the finals, Kuhn and Vinecki put it all on the line. Vinecki, who has qualified for Team USA, threw a lay-full-full, landing strong, taking third to move on to the super final round. Kuhn, also throwing a lay-full-full, just missed the landing but her score was enough to make the top six and advance to super finals. In the final round of six, all eyes were on the Americans. Vinecki threw a full-full-full, and slightly overrotated the landing causing her to do a front flip but she walked away unscalved and finished the day fifth. All eyes were on Kuhn. With her last individual podium in 2021, it was time to be back on those steps. Throwing a lay-full-full, Kuhn stomped the landing. Anxiously awaiting her score, and for the final athletes to jump, it was tense. The score came through, the final athletes jumped, and Kuhn was back on the podium in third.
“This couldn't have been a more exciting way to start the weekend,” she said once the results were final. “I came into this competition at the bottom of the Olympic qualifier list, so being able to do this today was so huge for me,” she said, with tears.
Krueger started off the first jump of finals strong, with a score of 100, throwing the full-double-full-full. That was enough to send him to the top six. From there, it was all about execution. Landing his second jump, Krueger ended the day in fourth, his career-best World Cup result.
"It's been a long year for me, and a lot went into it. I was slowly progressing throughout the year, and I finally put it down in competition, so I'm pretty excited," said Krueger. "This is a personal best for me, fourth place, so a good result tomorrow could do the job."
Now, the athletes will rest and reset for the same competition tomorrow, with individual aerials taking place at the Lake Placid Jumping Complex. This is the final day of aerials competition before the Olympic Winter Games next month in Milano Cortina. The overall Crystal Globes will be awarded; Vinecki leads the USA overall World Cup standings, sitting in second going into the final competition of the 2025-26 season.
