All in all, I think this was a great weekend for our team as it shows that we are more than capable of great results. We are going to take this as we move on to Seefeld and even world championships down the road.
USA Nordic Combined is now in Seefeld, Austria getting ready for the Big Seefeld Triple World Cup at the end of the week. Before, we get too excited for this event; I want to take you back to Chaux Neuve, France and the events held last weekend. This was a big weekend for USA Nordic Combined and for myself included. I started off the year with some poor results but I knew that the form was there to be fighting for the podium. In Germany two weeks ago, I had a much better week and was able to score points in 24th. I came off that week with good energy and thoughts and wanted to carry that over to the competitions in France. Our team was able to get some good jumps on the hill before the competitions and I felt like they were pretty close to the level of my better jumps from Schonach, Germany. The Qualification and provisional comp round (PCR) were held Friday and I was excited to get going. I was very happy with my PCR and had a great jump at 108 meters. That put me safely in, but more importantly my jump was in a very good position for a top 10 if they were to use it in the weekend. Also in that round Bryan and Adam both had a good jump qualifying them for the weekend. Billy had an off jump and failed to qualify for the weekend, but I don’t see that happening again! On Saturday we had the first competition, which was an individual comp. We new going into it, that they was going to be some bad weather with snow, rain, and wind. In ski jumping that isn’t very much fun for the athletes and coaches as the conditions are constantly changing for both good and bad, and it is very hard to hold a competition that is consistent. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have a competition jump like I had in the PCR and started very far back. Adam on the other had lead our team with jumping in 27th place right in the mix and Bryan wasn’t too far back either. I was super stoked for Adam as this is his first year consistently on world cup and he had a fantastic chance at a top 30 result. I have always been the skier; no matter how bad I jump I still will race. Not only does it help you to race and build the speed and fitness required to compete at this high level, but I am also reminded that there are skiers at home dying to compete and it doesn’t look good on us if we skip the cross-country portion due to a bad jump. The racing was set to go, and I was going to be gunning for points along with the rest of the team. During lunch I started to feel kind of sick, I made the mistake of eating too much with my normal pre race meal, some tasty French cheese, and to top it off a red bull that was all to close to the start of the race. I set out at my normal tempo and by the first hill, I was feeling sick to my stomach and my whole body was feeling heavy and more or less sick like I was going to throw up. I continued to ski through the pain as I was getting closer to the top 30, but it wasn’t enough finishing in 34th. All eyes were on Adam Loomis though, as he was racing fast and sticking with some of the fastest guys on the circuit. He was hovering around 21st and was having Bryan to follow. Bryan finished 20th and Adam 21st giving Adam his first career world cup points. It has been a couple year since we have had someone other than Billy, Bryan, Johnny or I score points, and it was nice to see him up there in the mix for a top 20. If he can continue to do this, our team will be able to ski more athletes on world cup giving us more opportunities for other athletes. So for that CONGRATS to Adam for a great result. On Sunday, the rain came over night soaking the hill, followed by a fresh coat of a couple inches of soft snow. This caused a lot of damage to the ski jump and after an hour or so; the officials decided it was too dangerous to jump due to the soft conditions. Therefore, they decided to use the provisional jump, which we all jumped pretty well. I was really excited for the race, as I felt great, knew I was going to have good skis and with that I knew it was possible to be fighting for a top 10. I started 37th and went out of the start just like I wanted skiing fast and smooth. I was starting to pick off groups of people and around the 4th lap I caught my brother Bryan and started working with him. At this point in the race, I believe we were both in the top 15 with many more skiers closely in front of us. Bryan and I then caught the group containing places 4-10. I sat in a brief second before I launched what felt like a cycling move and attacked the group with almost 1.5 laps to go. I was hoping I would be along and no one could follow, but Jason Lamy Chappuis soon latched onto me and stayed with me to the finished where he left me in the dust for 5th. I was even more pleased when I saw my older brother coming into the finish in 8th place. I think this is the 2nd time we have both been in the top 10 together and we plan on that happening more often. Adam and Billy were skiing a good race, before Billy fell on the icy downhill leaving Adam more or less on his own. They both skied very good races and almost made it into the points.
All in all, I think this was a great weekend for our team as it shows that we are more than capable of great results. We are going to take this as we move on to Seefeld and even world championships down the road.
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December 2015
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