Germany & Powder at Home!

​In the last week snow has been in abundance everywhere that I have been, and man is it good to see. Our few days of training in Slovenia with fellow Americans had great snow. Slovenia actually had more than I have seen there in a while, it made for great skiing and fun jumping. A perfect lead up into last weekends competitions! 

Jumping in Klingenthal, GER

​At the end of our break in Slovenia we drove to Klingenthal, GER the location of the weekends World Cups! Klingenthal actually had more snow than I have ever seen there, typically there is barely enough snow to hold the comp, however this year there was tons, it was great to see. A short jog through the tiny town we stayed in after travel was quite pretty with massive snow banks and small little cabins lit up across the hills. Every place that holds a World Cup during the season has something special about it and Klingenthal has a couple. For one the hill is very large and a fun jump for some long flights! It is also known as a windy place which adds to the mental challenges each athlete has to deal with. One of the really cool things about Klingenthal is the amount of spectators and how excited they are. An incredible amount of fans come out of the woodwork to watch regardless of the weather. The jumping and cross-country venue are in the same location so all of the spectators carry on the party in-between the two segments! The atmosphere during the competition is extremely fun as the announcer is constantly leading the spectators in chants and cheering for each athlete, of course the German athletes warrant even louder cheers. Check out this video below of the crowd during the competition.

​The cross country course is a hard but fun one, it is a super high paced race with some very technical descents working your legs on every part of the course. The conditions on the first day where super consistent making for an awesome competition. However on the second day, the weather rolled in and it started dumping snow and was incredibly windy. The jumping actually got cancelled due to the high level of winds, because of that we raced off of the provisional round we completed on Friday. The race was especially brutal because the snow was a lot slower and there was challenging winds in places that it hadn’t been a factor the day before. In fact, race times were minutes slower than the day before. I had another solid weekend, finishing in the top 30 again on the second day of the comps. On the second day myself, Ben, and Taylor all finished in the top 30, a first for our team this year! If you want to check results click here.

​I also wanted to officially announce that I have been named to the 2019 World Championship Team! This is very exciting as it will be my first World Championships, and I am super pumped about the team I will be competing alongside! We have been working hard all year and are very excited for the biggest event of the year. USA Nordic made an official announcement of the teams we will be sending, you can read that here. Currently I am in Park City starting our pre-championship training. It is super nice to be recharging and resting while sleeping in my own bed, something I don’t get to do much during the season. The snow is incredible in Park City right now, and I am taking full advantage getting some awesome days skiing powder which puts a huge smile on my face! I will be heading back to Europe in the coming week for the next phase of our pre-championship training so stay tuned!