PARK CITY, UT (July 26, 2016) – The nation’s top junior and senior ski jumpers and nordic combined athletes will be in Park City at the end of July for the L.L.Bean U.S. Ski Jumping and U.S. Nordic Combined Championships. The events are part of the 18^th annual Springer Tournee with competitions taking place at the Utah Olympic Park in Park City, UT and Soldier Hollow in Midway, UT July 28 - 30. The event will be a preview of the 2017 Junior World Championships to be held in Utah next January.

The U.S. Championships will wrap up the Springer Tournee week on Saturday, July 30 with both the large hill title event on the Utah Olympic Park’s HS-134 meter hill, as well as the U.S. Nordic Combined Championships at both the Park and Soldier Hollow. The normal hill U.S championship event will be in Lake Placid in October.

At last year’s large hill jumping competition, Will Rhoads (Park City, UT; Park City Nordic) and Nina Lussi (Lake Placid, NY; New York Ski Educational Foundation) claimed first-time titles for ski jumping. Rhoads will be back to defend his title against a strong group of competitors, including USA Nordic teammates Kevin Bickner (Wacounda, IL; Norge Ski Club) and Mike Glasder (Cary, IL; Norge Ski Club). Bickner finished third at last year’s Championships and posted a towering 214.5 meter jump during the 2015-16 season, while Glasder claimed the normal hill title at last year’s event in Lake Placid, NY.

On the women’s side, Lussi and last year’s second place finisher Tara Geraghty-Moats (W. Fairlee, VT; New York Ski Education Foundation) will be absent from competition, leaving the top spots open for the taking. Veteran jumpers Jessica Jerome and Abby Hughes (both Park City, UT; Women’s Ski Jumping USA) are expected to jump. Logan Sankey (Steamboat Springs, CO; Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club), who was 12^th in the Youth Olympic Games last season, will be among a talented group of juniors.

Bryan Fletcher (Steamboat Springs, CO) claimed his second title in nordic combined last year and will look to go for a third against his brother Taylor Fletcher (Steamboat Springs, CO) and 2015’s second place finisher Adam Loomis (Eau Claire, WI).

The venues for the U.S. Championships are the same venues that were used in the 2002 Olympic Winter Games and will also be used for the 2017 FIS Nordic Junior Worlds and U23 Cross Country Ski Championships in February 2017. Many of the athletes competing in the Springer Tournee will be looking to snag spots on the junior worlds team.

Admission is free at both the Utah Olympic Park and Soldier Hollow. U.S. Championships jumping competition begins Saturday morning with an 8:00 a.m. trial round, followed by competition rounds at 9:00 and 10:30 a.m. Nordic combined will move onto the roller ski tracks at Soldier Hollow for a 5:00 p.m. evening competition.
 

U.S. SKI JUMPING AND NORDIC COMBINED CHAMPIONSHIPS

Thursday, July 28
4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. – Jump training, Utah Olympic Park

Friday, July 29
Springer Tournee, HS100-meter, Utah Olympic Park
8:00 a.m. – Trial round
9:00 a.m. – Competition ski jumping
10:30 a.m. – Final round ski jumping

Saturday, July 30
L.L.Bean U.S. Ski Jumping Championship, HS134-meter, Utah Olympic Park
8:00 a.m. – Trial round
9:00 a.m. – Competition ski jumping and nordic combined
10:30 a.m. – Final round ski jumping
11:30 a.m. – Ski jumping awards

L.L.Bean U.S. Nordic Combined Championship, Soldier Hollow
5:00 p.m. – Run and Roller ski
7:00 p.m. – Nordic combined awards

After winning the annual Fourth of July nordic combined cup on Howelsen Hill, soon-to-be-dad Bryan Fletcher (Steamboat Springs, CO) talked with Joel Reichenberger of Steamboat Today about his Olympic history, his hopes for future medals…and why he was wearing a hot pink suit.

Read Steamboat Today’s article: Suited in Pink, Fletcher Eyes Future

With strong junior results in the 2015-16 season adding to a solid list of previous American nordic combined results, FIS asked Head Coach Dave Jarrett four questions about the future of nordic combined.

Read FIS’ article Tuesday Talk: Dave Jarrett.

SCHONACH, Germany (March 6, 2016) - The FIS Nordic Combined World Cup season wrapped up Sunday, with a two-jump and 15k cross country format. American Taylor Fletcher (Steamboat Springs, CO) took advantage of the longer cross country race to set the fastest pace, moving up to finish 23rd. Brother Bryan Fletcher (Steamboat Springs, CO) was 29th. Norway's Joergen Graabak took the win by two seconds over Germany's Fabian Riessle.

In the unusual two-round jumping competition Sunday morning, Bryan came in 29th with Taylor 30th. Bryan put down jumps of 90.5 and 87.5 meters, with Taylor soaring 83.0 and 91.0 meters - both a distant four and a half minutes back from leader Manuel Faisst of Germany, who held a 27 second lead over Akito Watabe despite the Japanese skier’s towering 108.0 meter ride in the first round.

In the 15k cross country, Taylor moved up quickly but brother Bryan, still suffering from back pains, wasn’t able to keep up. Taylor won the cross country portion by 14 seconds, moving up to 23rd.

“The last event is always a hard one as everyone is ready for the season to be over,” said Taylor Fletcher. “But, at the same time, everyone wants to put in one more strong effort. I have always liked the 15k races but the format is always suited to the jumpers as its double jump points but only a 50 percent longer cross country course. I feel that it would be more fair if we did a 20k so it wasn't so heavily weighted.” 

While he didn’t have the jump he wanted, Taylor did show strong in cross country.

“I was happy with both my cross country races in Schonach as I laid down some of the fastest times!” said Taylor. “Sunday was a great race as I knew I had to go for broke to move up in the ranking and pretty much skied the whole 15k race as hard as I possible could.“

Bryan, who had been strong in the past few weeks, injured his back warming up for jumping on Thursday. He stayed out of Friday’s team competition and did not start cross country on Saturday.

“Well for me it was not the end of the season I wanted,” said Bryan. “For events like this, I love the longer distance races - they suit my strengths very well. But today I was out there fighting to stay top 20 in the overall despite the back injury.”

Bryan ended up 20th in the season standing with Taylor 31st.

“This season the jumping level was very high and they changed the points to make jumping even more weighted then previous years,” said Bryan. “In my opinion, now it's overly weighted on the jumping side. So it's clear that jumping was our limiting factor this year and that's again what we will be focusing on in the lead up to South Korea over the next two years.”

Both Bryan and Taylor have been strong in cross country, but have been fighting to regain ground lost in jumping all season.

“I always felt I was all over the board with my results in the hill and that was extremely frustrating,” said Taylor. “My racing this year also suffered because of it. I can't count how many times I felt like I was doing solo time trials in the competitions as the jumping was so spread out and the time gaps so much bigger. 

Now the brothers look to the off season.

“All in all this season was a tough fight on all fronts but that's what I expected,” Bryan Fletcher said. “I took more time off this spring then previous years so I could recharge and have the energy to build to a higher level the next two years. Already I am looking forward to summer training and approaching things from a new angle!”

Taylor agreed with Bryan, adding, “I am looking forward to the off season and regaining focus as we start our training towards Lahti 2017 World Championships and the 2018 Winter Olympics.” 

RESULTS
HS106m/15k Gundersen

SCHONACH, Germany (March 5, 2016) - Germany’s Eric Frenzel continued to dominate, taking a strong 15-second win over Norway’s Jan Schmid in Schonach Saturday in a FIS Nordic Combined World Cup. Taylor Fletcher (Steamboat Springs, CO) led the USA in 27th.

Fletcher was 49th in the jump, but skied the sixth-fastest 10k cross country leg to move up to 27th. Ben Berend (Steamboat Springs, CO) was 41st. Bryan Fletcher (Steamboat Springs, CO), who has been battling back pain this week, opted to not start the cross country.

In Friday’s four-man team event, the USA was ninth with Norway taking a seven second win over Germany.

The World Cup season concludes Sunday with a final individual event. Frenzel has already clinched a fourth straight title.

RESULTS
Individual Gundersen HS106m/10k

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (Feb. 28, 2016) - The hill record on the HS106 meter jump fell for the second day in a row Sunday, this time into the hands of American Nita Englund (Florence, WI). Englund soared 103.5 meters on her second jump to finish seventh in a FIS Ski Jumping World Cup in Almaty. Japan’s Sara Takanashi continued her winning streak with a narrow come-from-behind win over Austria Daniela Iraschko-Stolz.

"I had no idea it was a hill record until hours later when I was in the hotel,” said Englund. “But I’m very happy because I have never had a hill record before! However, I'm still going to have nightmares about my landings. They need a lot of work."

Similar to Saturday, Englund came from behind, standing 13th after the first round with a jump of 93.5 meters. On her second ride, she punched it well down the hill at 103.5 meters to eclipse the 103.0-meter mark set by Takanashi on Saturday. Almaty had also been kind to Englund this summer when she scored a second place finish in a FIS Ski Jumping Summer Grand Prix.

“Nita's second jump today was one of her best since I met her,” said coach Vasja Bajc. “I feel happy for her. This season she invested much energy and motivation living alone in foreign country away of her family and friends on her own costs. She was dedicated to do something for her career from her first day and it is a joy to work with that kind of athlete even if we sometimes went through hard times.

“I am happy that technically yesterday's and today's second round jumps of both Nita and Tara were as I want to see them, but the telemark landing is still a problem.”

Tara Geraghty-Moats (W. Fairlee, VT) was 15th, backing up the 11th she scored on Saturday – her two best results of the season. She had jumps of 89.0 and 95.0 meters.

"I'm very excited to have finally gotten some satisfying results after a frustrating section mid season,” said Geraghty-Moats. "Hopefully we will have another competition, but if this is the last World Cup I'm very happy with how I ended the season. It was also especially great watch Nita set a new hill record here."

Officials are still working to re-schedule next weekend’s cancelled event in Rasnov, Romania. Takanashi currently leads the overall World Cup standings by 500 points over Iraschko-Stolz. Englund is 13th with Geraghty-Moats in 28th.

RESULTS
Women’s HS106 meter Jump

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (Feb. 27, 2016) - Nita Englund (Florence, WI) bounced in the second round to finish eighth in a FIS Ski Jumping World Cup in Almaty on Saturday. Sara Takanashi of Japan continued her dominance setting a new hill record of 103.0 meters on her second jump on the HS 106 meter hill.

Englund flew 91.0 meters on her first jump to stand 19th. She came back in the second round with 98.5 meters – fourth longest – to move up to eighth. Tara Geraghty-Moats (W. Fairlee, VT) was 11th.

With warm weather in Almaty, officials opted to cancel the trial round to preserve the track.

“Even though the jury canceled the trial round, we’re happy we could have a competition in good conditions,” said U.S. Coach Vasja Bajc.

According to Bajc, the biggest key to progress for the team is improvement on landing style scores.

“Style points are decisive on small hills and bad landings will not give anyone a chance to finish top six when the field will become even stronger,” said Bajc. “This is reality and a very important element to learn in athletes youth and important for coaches to pay attention to.

“Today, both Tara and Nita could be placed much higher if you just add seven to nine points for better landings. Both had excellent second round jumps but it’s not enough to reach the podium without improvement in landing.”

The women are back in action Sunday with a second event.

RESULTS
Women’s HS106 Meter Jump

VAL DI FIEMME, Italy (Feb. 26, 2017) - Brother Bryan and Taylor Fletcher (Steamboat Springs, CO) came from behind to finish sixth in a FIS Nordic Combined World Cup Friday in Val di Fiemme. Norway 1 picked up the win by 6.7 seconds over Germany 1, with France 1 in third.

The Fletcher brothers jumped to ninth then posted the third-fastest cross country time to move up to sixth.

"Today was a better day for Taylor and I,” said Bryan. “We both had some decent jumps that put us closer to the fight for the podium.”

Taylor jumped 114.5 with Bryan soaring 129.0 – one of the longest jumps of the round.

"Today was a extremely hard with every aspect of the jumping,” said Taylor. "The large hill event from World Championships was the exact same with the wind conditions. The round started with really strong tail wind and I felt like I had a much better jump. At the start of the second round the wind switched to really strong headwind and the skiers started to really fly! I was stoked to see that Bryan had a much better jump and put us in a position to race and push the pace in the cross country.”

The brothers started the cross country relay a minute, 22 seconds back.

"The cross country race was better on the result page then how it felt for me,” said Taylor. "My legs were heavy from the last couple races, but I was stoked to see I had a strong race with how I felt.”

"Personally I think I pushed a little too hard in the first three laps resulting in some tired legs down the stretch,” said Bryan. "I managed to hold it together just enough for Taylor to pull us back into the fight for top six.”

Individual events are on tap Saturday and Sunday.

"I would not be surprised to see some great performances and some totally blow ups from all the nordic combined competitors,” said Bryan. "We have done a ton of racing and quite a bit of travel over the last two weeks and it will show this weekend. Personally I think today I raced some of the fatigue from travel out of my legs and hopefully tomorrow I will bounce back and be able to ski strong in the 10k.”

"Today was a step forward for us and we are going to build on this for the rest of the weekend,” added Taylor.

RESULTS
Nordic Combined Team Sprint

RASNOV, Romania (Feb. 23, 2016) - Jasper Good (Steamboat Springs, CO, Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club) opened the FIS Nordic Junior Ski Championships strong on Monday, finishing 11th in the opening nordic combined event. Austria’s Bernhard Flaschberger took gold. It was a career best Junior Worlds finish for Good and matched the sixth best finish in U.S. history.

Good, 19, soared 88.5 meters on the HS100 meter hill, putting him into 15th. He started a minute, 22 seconds back in the 10k cross country.

“My performance in the first individual event was what I would consider a solid representation of my average level of competition,” Good said. “I have been consistent on the hill, which I was pleased with. However, I didn't feel as if I had a very strong race. With that being said I had a solid performance that I am happy with.”

Snow conditions in Rasnov have been challenging, with organizers bringing in snow to cover a narrow cross country track. Monday’s event had been moved up from its scheduled spot on Tuesday because of weather. A second individual competition, originally set for Sunday, has now been moved up to Wednesday on the HS100 meter hill with a 5k cross country. It will wrap up with a four-man team event, now scheduled with the jump Tuesday and cross country on Thursday.

Warm temperature and lack of snow have resulted in a shuffling of the event schedule. (Jeff Good)

American Ben Loomis (Eau Claire, WI, Flying Eagles Ski Club), who won a silver medal last week at the Youth Olympic Games, will be joining the team now in Rasnov.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Jasper Good’s 11th in the opening nordic combined event at the FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships matched the sixth best finish in U.S. history.
• Good, 19, was 21st in the event at last year’s Junior Worlds, his best previous finish.
• The Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club athlete is competing in his fourth Junior Worlds.
• It was the best U.S. nordic combined finish at Junior Worlds since Michael Ward (Aspen, CO) was ninth in 2012.

QUOTES

Jasper Good
My performance in the first individual event was what I would consider a solid representation of my average level of competition. I have been consistent on the hill, which I was pleased with. However, I didn't feel as if I had a very strong race. With that being said I had a solid performance that I am happy with.

As this is my last year of World Juniors I was very excited to see where I stack up against my age group.

This year's snow is scary at best. I’m happy that the organizers were able to pull off the events. Although it is not ideal conditions, I will take what I can get as everyone else is dealing with the same conditions and it's better than not competing at all!

RESULTS
Nordic combined HS100m/10k individual Gundersen