Oberwiesenthal, Germany

Our next stop was Oberwiesnthal for the Summer Grand Prix, this event is like the summer version of a World Cup. The reason that my team gets to participate such a high level event is because during this time the US Nordic Combined A team is not in Europe. In fact we are the only US Nordic combined athletes in Europe at the time so they send us to this event. This year the US had 6 spots so every one on my team got to start. However there were 70 athletes at this competition and only 50 compete. There is a preliminary jump comp to decide the top 50 for the individual day, however every team that enters gets to compete. Only one person on my team was able to qualify for the individual, so most of my teams focus was one the team event day. I was paired with team mate Tyler Smith who had competed in a Grand Prix before. We started with another US team and all of the the young teams and were able to stay in the front of that group. However the leaders of the race are so much faster than everyone else and the course was a short loop, that the leaders lapped all of the teams Tyler and I were skiing with. On my third of sixth lap I started about ten seconds in front of the leaders. It was the most exhilarating lap of my life, being chased by the best in the world was a very cool feeling, however once they caught me Tyler and I had to drop out, however until someone told me to stop skiing I just tried to ski with them for as long as possible to see how it felt. This event was extremely fun and a great experience.

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The individual race in Oberwiesenthal