Saturday was the start of the World Cup! When I got to the hill I was in awe of all the media and fans! There was easily a thousand people there to watch the jumping and then on top of that, Eurosport(Sports Center of Europe) was broadcasting the event. It was a completely different scene than on the Continental Cup. Pretty cool! The jumping in the morning consisted of a trial jump and then the competition jump. Bryan jumped ok and ended up in 35th. Taylor jumped into 28th and was in contention for a top 10 result. The cross country race was really exciting. Taylor skied a blistering 1st fastest time and passed 23 people finishing with a personal best of 5th! Bryan finished in 24th. Overall it was a great day for the U.S.
Sunday was the second round of competitions. The jumping once again consisted of a trial jump and competition jump. However this time the trial jump was the qualifying jump. I had another opportunity to qualify but I just couldn't put together a good jump and jumped to 52nd. However the rest of the team qualified including Johnny Spillane who has had trouble jumping this year making it his first World Cup race of the season. Even though I was unhappy about my jumping it was great to see the rest of the team qualify. The race was really exciting and the U.S. had good results around the board. Johnny finished in 37th, Bryan finished in 23rd, and Taylor Fletcher once again showed the world that he is a threat. He skied the first fastest time from 21st up to 3rd setting another personal best! It was great weekend in Seefeld and I learned a lot from the team but didn't get the results I was looking for. But I still had one more week to try and qualify. But here's the catch. Teammate Todd Lodwick had to stay in the top 50 overall ranking for the U.S. to ski five athletes.
After Seefeld, we drove to Klingenthal, Germany for the next World Cup. Klingenthal is a small town but has a very big nordic combined fan base. I was able to train on the hill two days which was very helpful and had some good jumps which boosted my confidence. I felt like I was in a good place once again with my jumping but had to hope that Todd would stay in the top 50. Thursday we got the news that Todd just barely missed the top 50 and therefore I would not be able to compete. This was not the best news, but these past weeks were a great experience. It gave me motivation to improve my jumping so that I would be ready for my next World Cup. In short, the trip was really beneficial.
I have now been back in Park City for a week and have been staying busy. Yesterday we had one last competition before heading back to Europe. I jumped really well and started the race in 1st. Then I had an okay cross country race and held on for the win. I am feeling ready and am psyched for the upcoming comps. I will keep you posted on my future travels and results!