They're young, very young for ski jumpers, and especially so for U.S. Ski Team jumpers. But the best way to feel good about flying without wings or a parachute is to start young.
Saturday, at the Winter Sport Park, the top U.S. ski jumpers flew before officials and fans in the U.S. Ski Jumping Championships. Winning, for the second consecutive year, was Randy Weber, a high school senior, just one of the U.S.'s young jumpers from Steamboat Springs, Colo.According to Alan Johnson, jump program director, most of the U.S. contingent is between 15 and 18, "which is pretty young.
Most of these kids are still in high school."
It is, as Johnson says, an investment in the future. Given a couple of years experience, this group will be flying high with some pretty respectable credentials.
Second was the only true veteran on the team, Tad Langlois of Newport, N.H., soon to be 26, and third was Matt Kuusinen, another Steamboat jumper, and another of the youngsters at just 16.
The day was, for jumping, as good as they get. Winds were still, the day mostly sunny and occasionally an uphill breeze would blow by to give some lift to drooping skis.
The jumpers for this event were, as Johnson was quick to point out, "Some of the best . . . With a lot of potential."
Weber was the 19th jumper, by virtue of trial jumps. On his first jump, is missed takeoff and even with a good landing did not feel good about his overall showing. It wasn't a winning jump by any means.
On his second he hit it. He had the longest jump of the day - 90 meters. He style, too, was good - body forward, arms to his side and skis in a "V" with tails touching.
"I knew what I needed to do to win. I needed to breathe deeply, think, tell myself what I needed to do and then visualize what I was going to do," he said.
"I knew as soon as I cleared the knoll I had a good jump, better than the first. You can tell. It's almost like being in slow motion. You're actually going faster, but you just feel slower. That's the way it felt."
His jumps of 85.5 meters and 90, with style points, earned him 223.5 points.
Langlois, who has been to three Olympics, didn't win but gained a lot from this event.
He has, as he readily admits, been in a slump for the last couple of months.
"This is the first time I've really felt like a ski jumper for a long time. I felt good today, especially on the second jump. I knew I had a good one. It's like golf. Before you even see the ball you know if you had a good hit or not. That's the way this jump was. I knew I hit it 20 to 30 meters off the jump.
He had jumps of 88 and 89.5 meters for 221.5 points.
Kuusinen had jumps of 88 and 89 meters, for 212.5 points.
Fourth was Brendan Doran, the only skier to finish in the top 5 who is not on the U.S. team. Fifth was Taylor Hoffman.
Actually, Doran and Hoffman were leading after the first round of jumping, and had either come close to their first jumps, consensus is one of them would have won this event.
Karla Keck, the only women in the competition, finished 23.
Johnson says that because this is such a young team, the U.S.
has stayed away from World Cup compeition.
"What we want to do is bring them along slowly. Later in the year we'll probably put a couple of jumpers in World Cup events.
Next year, though, they should be ready."
Today, the jumping will continue with the Utah Winter Games 90-meter competition.