STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — Taylor Fletcher may be as fast as anyone at any level in Nordic combined when it comes to cross-country skiing. He showed as much again Friday, skiing away from the pack to win the first of two Nordic combined Continental Cup events in Steamboat Springs.

Saturday, however, he showed that power has some limits. For all the scorching he can do on the course, he’s not quite built to win at the end of a tight race.

“Sprinting has never really been my forte,” Fletcher said. “I’ve always been the guy who tries to go early.”

Fletcher jumped well enough Friday; his “go early” strategy worked perfectly. He got out in front early in the 10-kilometer race, skied alone and won easily.

On Saturday, a more average jump forced a change in tactics. He still caught the lead group by the midway point of the race, but there was no chance to “go early.” He still made a break for the finish line, tearing away on an uphill segment of the final lap. This time, however, someone was able to hang on,

Austria’s Paul Grestgraser, who applied some rockets of his own, beat Fletcher down the final home stretch to win the day in Romick Rodeo Arena in downtown Steamboat Springs.

“Taylor went on the last uphill, and he was strong, but I just tried to stay behind him,” Grestgraser said. “I had a good feeling I could beat him at the finish. The finish sprint is quite long, and I knew if I saved some energy for the last 100 meter, it would be enough.”

Taylor Fletcher offers a shrug of his shoulders as he crosses the finish line in second place after he lost a sprint to the finish against Austria’s Paul Grestgraser. (Photo by Joel Reichenberger)

Despite Fletcher’s mild disappointment in a second place finish rather than another victory, it was another big day for the Americans.

That started on the women’s side, where Vermont skier Tara Geraghty-Moats continued to set the bar for the early days of women’s Nordic combined, winning again Saturday to make it a clean sweep of the Steamboat events.

She won Saturday’s race by 40.1 seconds, down slightly from her 47.7 second victory the day prior. Both ended the same way, with her coasting toward the finish line, a wide grin on her face and her arms in the air.

Geraghty-Moats skied up from a fourth-place jump to win.

Norway’s Gyda Hansen Westvold had the day’s best ski jump and turned that into her second consecutive second-place finish. Italy’s Veronica Gianmoena, edged out at the finish line for third place Friday, secured that third-place finish Saturday.

The U.S. and Steamboat had two more strong finishes. Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club athlete Tess Arnone pieced together a very strong race to place seventh, and teammate Annika Malacinski was ninth.

Lars Buraas of Norway was third.

The competitions will now shift to Park City, which plays host to two more Nordic combined Continental Cup competitions for both men and women this week.

The post Fletcher sees mixed results at cup appeared first on Park Record.

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — The end came with a dedicated effort, a sharp sprint but still a frustrating result Thursday as the U.S. Nordic Combined Ski Team wrapped up its 2018 Winter Olympics events with the four-man team relay at the Alpensia Ski Jumping Centre in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

The Americans fought in a group of three for the final laps of the event, but Bryan Fletcher, anchoring the squad, ended up at the back of that trio at the finish line, the U.S. placing 10th out of 10 nations in the team relay event.

“I just tried to ski the best I could. I lost a little bit again in the sprint, but I went as hard as I could the whole way,” Fletcher said.

The United States didn’t come to the Olympics expecting any major success in the team relay. It’s team was young, three Olympic rookies who’ve yet to establish themselves on the World Cup, and one of its two veterans was notably slumping for much of the season.

The 2018 Olympics was more about the 2022 Games, the athletes said, when the U.S. could return four of the five athletes it brought to Pyeongchang.

“Result-wise, forget about it and move on,” Taylor Fletcher said of his 2018 Olympic experience. “Experience-wise, it’s another building block.”

The team wasn’t competitive at the top of the event Thursday, jumping into ninth position out of those 10 nations. Fletcher had the group’s top jump, but none was better than seventh in his round, again against 10 competitors.

That left the team starting 3 minutes, 13 seconds behind the top-jumping Austrians. The U.S. squad and Taylor Fletcher ski leadoff, Ben Berend up second, Ben Loomis third and Bryan Fletcher fourth.

The team was better on this ski course, Taylor Fletcher recording the third fastest time on his leg and Loomis and BryannFletcher each recording the sixth-fastest time. It entered a back-and-forth for much of the race with No. 8 Poland and No. 10 Italy.

Bryan Fletcher was sparring with those two nations up to the finish line.

The Germans again dominated the event, capping a wildly successful Olympics in Nordic combined. They started Thursday’s race in second place but quickly made up that ground and built a huge lead to win the gold medal by a margin of 52.7 seconds.

Norway took silver and Austria bronze as those two teams were able to pull away from Japan, which finished fourth.

The Germans accounted for all three gold medals and five of the seven available medals at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Eric Frenzel won the normal hill competition then took bronze in the large hill. Johannes Rydzek won the large hill, leading a German sweep with Gabian Riessle second and Frenzel third.

“They’ve been unbelievable. It’s some of the best performances I’ve ever seen,” Bryan Fletcher said.

The U.S. team didn’t come to get last place, but in a bigger picture sense, the squad did say it got of what it wanted from the Olympic experience.

“All the experience will help me stay relaxed and be prepared for the next Olympics in four or even eight years from now,” Loomis said. “It’s amazing being here.”

To reach Joel Reichenberger, call 970-871-4253, email jreichenberger@Steamboat Today.com or follow him on Twitter @JReich9.

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STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — The good news finally came for Taylor Fletcher after 1,431 days of working every day since he finished his last event at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

It came in the very last qualifying event and four days before the deadline to announce the competitors for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

The good news came for Jasper Good on Thursday, the last day possible.

The International Olympic Committee took three days to decide which nations got how many spots in South Korea, and a retirement in Slovenia of all places meant the United States got a fourth spot, and that meant Good was in.

Two native sons of Steamboat Springs found out in the final week that they were going to the Olympics.

The news was met with excitement in Steamboat, but another local skier, Ben Berend, had to take time to himself, so he left his best friends and teammates behind and sank into a chair in the lobby of the team’s hotel in Seefeld, Austria, trying to come to terms with it all — the fact that while others had gotten that last-day phone call, he hadn’t. While all of his best friends were going to the Olympics, living the dream they’d shared since they were boys, he wasn’t.

That’s where his coach found him, deep in regret and sorrow.

“Follow me,” he said.

Berend reluctantly obliged.

It had been the roughest of days.

The writing had been on the wall in terms of making the team, and he knew it was his own fault. He’d gotten a slow start to the season, especially compared to his teammates.

U.S. team veteran Bryan Fletcher was the first to lock up a spot, winning the late-December U.S. Olympic Team Trials to ensure he’d be going to his second Olympics.

Ben Loomis, a 19-year old from Eau Clarie, Wisconsin, was, for all practical purposes, next thanks to strong results on the Continental Cup.

Berend had started the season competing on the World Cup, the No. 3 skier on the team and a favorite to make the Olympic squad, but he hadn’t had a single noteworthy finish at that level. 

He came home to compete in Continental Cup events in Steamboat Springs, and while he was better there, he finished behind Loomis and Good.

He’d be better in January, he said, when the competitions shifted to a massive ski jump hill in Germany more suited to Berend’s style, but, that didn’t work, either.

The other team spots began to fill up.

Loomis kept up solid results. He’d be going to the Olympics, the youngest skier on the Nordic combined team.

“The Olympics are something I have always dreamed of and to go at such a young age is extremely exciting,” Loomis said in a U.S. team news release.

Then Taylor Fletcher locked up his spot with a dramatic last-stand performance on the Continental Cup, earning a third-place finish on Sunday in his very last opportunity to so. 

That ensured he’d be on the team and be a three-time Olympian.

“It wasn’t an easy road to get to the Olympics this year as I have had some struggles with jumping and have had some bad luck that made it challenging until the last weekend of qualifying,” Fletcher said in the release. “I would like to think I got that out of the way, and I can focus now on performing at my highest level during the Games.”

Good, too, was very solid early in the season and just strong enough late to maintain his spot in the rankings.

When the U.S. found out early Thursday morning it would definitely have a fourth spot at the Olympics, it went to Good.

Berend’s one ray of hope in the final weeks was a strong performance at a pair Continental Cups in Ruka, Finland, but he still sat behind four of his teammates in the point standings, solidly fifth when the U.S. would be lucky to get four spots.

Berend would be happy for Good, his best friend, no question, but sitting in a lobby in Austria he mostly just felt sorry for himself.

“I was devastated, completely crushed,” he said. “I was fully into the mourning process.”

He texted his parents the confirmation.

The dream, at least for 2018, was over.

They canceled their plane tickets to South Korea.

Being summoned by coach Jan Matura didn’t change anything about Berend’s mood, but Matura came, he followed.

“I followed him upstairs,” Berend recounted hours later. “I walked into a room full of our team and coaches. (USA Nordic director) Bill Demong started talking about the Olympics, and I sat on a bench with my head down wondering why I was told to be in this meeting. Torture, maybe?”

Maybe.

Except Berend didn’t know one thing. An international shuffling — even some U.S. team staff isn’t sure what exactly happened — had opened one final spot in the field of 55 racers.

Demong continued. Berend listened.

“He just said, ‘Ben you have made the Olympic team,’” Berend recounted. “I couldn’t believe it. Tears started streaming down my face. I couldn’t even talk I was so choked up.”

The U.S. Olympic Team announced 12 new athletes Thursday.

Steamboat Springs-trained ski jumper Nita Englund, from Florence, Wisconsin, made the cut for the women’s team, along with Park City, Utah, duo Sarah Hendrickson and Abby Ringquist.

Nordic combined, then, will have five. Steamboat’s Bryan Fletcher is in for his second Olympics.

His younger brother Taylor Fletcher is back for his third.

Ben Loomis is in for his first, as is Steamboat’s Jasper Good, and, even when he was sure it wasn’t possible, so is Steamboat’s Ben Berend, an Olympian against all odds.

“I felt every emotion that comes along with missing out on a dream this big, and it was devastating,” he said. “Then I got to feel the pride on the other side of that. It was totally insane, exhausting and awesome.

“I’m ready for a little less drama in my life now.” 

The Olympics begin Feb. 9 with Opening Ceremonies. The Nordic combined normal hill event is Feb. 14 and the large hill event Feb. 20. The four-man team relay is Feb. 22.

Thursday’s announcement brings the total number of Steamboat-trained athletes in the 2018 Olympics to 15.

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STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — It was “all-but” official a month ago, and a lock several weeks ago, but the actual news came Monday evening, and Jaelin Kauf said, even knowing what she knew, it was a relief.

The Steamboat Springs freestyle moguls skier is going to be an Olympian.

She was included on a list of eight men and women on the U.S. Olympic Team’s moguls squad.

“It’s incredible,” Kauf said Monday evening. “I kind of knew before I was going. I had two first places, which is about as qualified as you can get, but it was still a stressful week waiting to see who all was going to be named.”

She’ll be joined at the Olympics by her two best friends, 20-year old Morgan Schild, from Rochester, New York, and 22-year old Telluride skier Keaton McCargo, as well as 18-year old Vail skier Tess Johnson.

It makes for a young but talented team loaded with podium possibilities and even gold-medal potential. Not a single woman representing the United States in moguls has been to an Olympics.

Kauf, 21, was born in Vail and raised in Alta, Wyoming, before she came to Steamboat Springs to attend and graduate from Steamboat Springs High School while refining her moguls skiing. She made the U.S. team in 2016 and quickly established herself as one of the top women on the squad.

She won a World Cup and earned a World Ski Championship bronze medal a year ago, then this year far outdid even those marks. She’s won two World Cup events and placed second in two more.

She’ll head to the Olympics as the top-ranked skier on the World Cup.

“I feel really good, and I’m very confident going into the Olympics,” she said. “I know my skiing is there and going to the Olympics, I want it and can make it happen.”

Schild’s seventh in the World Cup standings, McCargo eighth and Johnson 10th.

The four skiers on the men’s mogul team were also announced Monday evening. Bradley Wilson, from Butte, Montana, a 2014 Olympian and 2017 World Ski Championships silver medalist, is the team’s veteran. Troy Murphy, from Bethel Maine, Emerson Smith, from Dover, Vermont, and Casey Andringa, from Boulder and training out of Vail, all will make their first Olympic appearance.

Andringa actually lived in a tent in Steamboat Springs over the summer to save money, then put together a furious charge early this winter to make the team. He wasn’t on the U.S. Ski Team at all even last month but earned the chance to start in a World Cup event with a dominating performance at the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team Selections event late last month in Winter Park.

He then parlayed that opportunity into two top-10 finishes on the World Cup, which proved enough to make a start at the Olympics.

The U.S. will send four athletes on the men’s side for the first time since 2010 after opting to send just two in 2014.

Aerials, ski slopestyle and ski halfpipe teams announced

Ashley Caldwell of Ashburn, Virginia, Kiley McKinnon of Madison, Connecticut, and Madison Olsen of Park City, Utah, were named to the women’s freestyle skiing aerials team. Mac Bohonnon, also of Madison, Jon Lillis of Rochester, and Eric Loughran of Pelham, New Hampshire, will represent the United States for the men’s team.

Nick Goepper, Alex Hall, Gus Kenworthy and McRae Williams will compete in men’s ski slopestyle. Caroline Clarie, Devin Logan, Darian Stevens and Maggie Voisin will compete in women’s ski slopestyle.

Aaron Blunck, Alex Ferreira, Torin Yater-Wallace — all from Colorado — and David Wise will compete in men’s ski halfpipe. Maddie Bowman, Annalisa Drew, Devin Logan and Brita Sigourney were named to the women’s ski halfpipe team.

To reach Joel Reichenberger, call 970-871-4253, email jreichenberger@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @JReich9.

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But, barring a major curveball of a decision, Gold is headed back to the Olympics.

The Steamboat Springs halfpipe snowboarder placed fourth in a U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix event. A win would have made her position on the team official and a podium would have helped, as well. But, fourth was strong enough, especially given the results from Gold’s primary competition to make her all-but a lock for the 2018 Winter Olympics team.

The Olympics, in Pyeongchang, South Korea, are set to begin Feb. 9 with the Opening Ceremonies.

Gold also made the team for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, though that experience didn’t go quite as planned. She was injured in a training run moments before the start of the competition and was taken to the hospital instead of taking her first actual Olympic competitive run.

In Pyeongchang, she’ll have a chance to re-write that history, though she’d probably prefer to do it with a better run than she finished with Saturday.

For the second consecutive week Gold was the top rider in the qualification round. On her first attempt in finals she rode similar run to that qualifying trip, but didn’t score as high. Still, with a solid-enough result on the board, she dialed up the difficulty on her next two attempts. She fell both times attempting the newest addition to her arsenal, a 1080.

It all didn’t add up to enough to get her on the podium, but she didn’t need that to stand out as one of the top four U.S. halfpipe women thanks to the results from other riders. Her closest competitor, the insanely qualified Hannah Teter, couldn’t put together a run good enough to challenge Gold.

Teter, the Olympic gold medalist in 2006, silver medalist in 2010 and fourth-place finisher in 2014, will in all likelihood miss the 2018 team after finishing fifth Saturday night. The other top competitor for the fourth U.S. team spot, defending X Games Aspen champion Elana Hight, missed Saturday’s finals.

The team nominations will likely all be announced in the next several days, so until then it’s not official. But, barring something unexpected, Steamboat’s Arielle Gold is on track to be a two-time Olympian.

The post Arielle Gold closes in on second Olympic bid appeared first on Park Record.

Not quite. In fact, midway through the qualifying period’s final weekend, things may have grown foggier.

Four American athletes competed Saturday in France at the final individual World Cup of the season scheduled before the U.S. will announce the four Olympic athletes. Their performance — along with that of another athlete on the Continental Cup — didn’t do anything to clear up the big question.

The only confirmed member of the U.S. contingent is Steamboat Springs veteran Olympian Bryan Fletcher, who earned a trip to his second Olympics with a win in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials last month in Park City, Utah. He had the weekend off.

Any top-30 finish on the World Cup by any other athlete would have effectively locked in a spot next to Fletcher, but none of the other six athletes who’ve had starts on that circuit have achieved that mark.

Saturday, Wisconsin 19-year old Ben Loomis finished 37th, about 23 seconds off that 30th-place finish but still the best World Cup finish of his career. Park City, Utah’s Stephen Schumann was 45th and Steamboat Springs skier Ben Berend 46th.

Steamboat Springs skier Jasper Good missed qualifying for the event after placing 51st in the provisional jumping round when only the top-50 skiers advanced.

Somewhere north of that foursome, competing in Rena, Norway, Steamboat Springs skier Taylor Fletcher had perhaps his best result of the season, placing fourth on the Continental Cup.

Adam Loomis, from Wisconsin but with ties to Steamboat, was 33rd, Steamboat skier Grant Andrews 41st and Park City’s Jared Schumate 43rd.

Another World Cup event awaits Sunday, though it’s a team relay and unlikely to factor into any considerations for making the Olympic team. Those skiers on the Continental Cup do have one last chance to bulk up their resume with a final individual event in Norway.

Down to the last race

What’s it all mean for Olympic qualifying? It’s not clear.

Coach Martin Bayer said in the summer choosing the team would be a matter of facts and figures, but different skiers have had different opportunities to score points on different circuits.

Fletcher, for instance, has struggled mightily at the World Cup and been unable to make that top-30 mark and score points, often because his jumping has kept him out of the competitions entirely. But, he’s raced just once at the Continental Cup level, and in that race, Saturday’s, recorded the best U.S. result on that tour this year, scoring 50 points. (One World Cup point is worth an infinite number of Continental Cup points in terms of world ranking.)

Fletcher also has the best World Cup result of the year apart from Bryan Fletcher’s, a 34th-place finish last month.

Is that evidence enough to earn him a trip to his third Olympics, or will the team end up filled with young up-and-coming skiers for whom the experience could be a building block to future Olympic success? Among that group, Ben Loomis has likely locked up a spot with consistent Continental Cup results. Good is next, also having logged a string of strong results on that circuit, and Berend is close behind him on the strength of several big performances last weekend.

Another top result in Sunday’s Continental Cup race could propel Taylor Fletcher past both Good and Berend in terms of Continental Cup points and mix things up even more.

The team will be announced early this coming week.

The post Questions linger for Steamboat Nordic combined athletes appeared first on Park Record.

“There are plenty of things to stress about but also so many things to be excited for,” he said. “I’m having my best season ever and I’m in the hunt for an Olympic spot. It’s the best feeling ever. Having those things on my mind has kept the stress pretty minimal.”

Dierdorff has been in the midst of a tight fight with other members of the deep U.S. team in snowboard cross, hoping to lock up one of four spots at the 2018 Winter Olympics, which begin in less than three weeks in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Competitors had nearly a month to consider the ultra tight race between the fourth qualifying event, Dec. 22 in Italy, and the fifth and final event, Saturday in Turkey.

When that competition finally came, it went well, Dierdorff said, but not quite well enough to make the next couple of days easy.

He placed ninth, his fifth consecutive top-10 finish in the World Cup and an extension of what’s by far the best run of his career. But he didn’t get a finish on the podium, which would have guaranteed him a spot in Pyeongchang.

The Olympic team will be announced on Tuesday and there’s nothing left for Dierdorff to do but wait.

“The next couple days will be the toughest because it’s just sitting and waiting,” he said.

Dierdorff won his first two races to advance to the quarterfinals, but was third there, just inches away from a top-two finish that would have advanced him to the semifinals.

That left him in ninth.

“I’m not super happy with the ninth place but I was happy with my riding today,” he said. “I wasn’t having the best starts, as it really didn’t suit my riding style, but I felt like I had more speed than anyone on the rest of the course. I made some great passes and just missed advancing to the semifinal by inches.”

Decisions, decisions

Nearly as important as his own finish, two other Americans slid in ahead of him on the day, Nick Baumgartner for fourth place and Hagen Kearney for fifth.

The result actually allowed Dierdorff to better his standing on the World Cup rankings list, moving up one spot to fifth. He’s the top-rated American rider, just ahead of Kearney, seventh, Baumgartner, 12th, Jonathan Cheever, 15th, Alex Deibold, 17th, and Nate Holland, 23rd.

Include veteran Seth Wescott, a two-time Olympic champion who attempted a comeback this season, and the group behind Dierdorff includes a combined eight Olympic starts, three Olympic medals and eight World Championship medals.

Dierdorff doesn’t have of any of any of those, but he’s been red hot this season.

Only one rider, Jonathan Cheever, had scored a podium finish heading into Saturday’s event, and that result locked Cheever into South Korea. Dierdorff also had a World Cup podium this season, but in the one World Cup that didn’t count in the U.S. qualifying process.

He was consistently one of the best on the team for nearly every other event, however, helping build that World Cup ranking.

Now that there are no more chances for athletes to earn a podium that would guarantee them a place in South Korea, the decision falls to the coaches, who will pick the remainder of the squad.

There, they can consider Dierdorff’s podium finish that fell outside the official qualifying period, and they can consider the consistent results that have him ranked near the top of the world.

He’s just going to have to wait a few days to see if it all pays off.

“I feel like I’m in a great place. It’s pretty stressful, but I’m stoked right now,” he said.

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STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Ten months of intense training and two months of pressure-packed qualifying and it all came to an end Sunday for athletes hoping to compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Of the more than 30 local Steamboat Springs athletes who started the season this winter with hopes of qualifying for the Olympics, several have guaranteed their spots at that event, which starts Feb. 9 with the Opening Ceremonies.

Many more saw their dreams dashed, either via injury or insufficient results.

A handful of others, meanwhile, are now entirely through the qualifying process and still awaiting word as to whether they’ll add “Olympian” to their resume.

Sunday featured one last day of on-snow action, and at least one local athlete very much took advantage of it. Today, however, the action goes to the meeting rooms.

The first meetings will take place in Europe, officially declaring how many spots each nation will be allotted in each event.

The focus then turns somewhat more local, where officials from the United States Ski and Snowboard Association and directors and coaches from each of the Olympic disciplines will meet in a series of meetings deciding just how to divvy up those Olympic spots. Many are already spoken for by athletes who’ve met objective qualifying standards, including Steamboat athletes Bryan Fletcher in Nordic combined and Jaelin Kauf in freestyle moguls skiing.

Others, such as Steamboat halfpipe snowboarder Arielle Gold, are confident they’re in line to receive a phone call, while still others, like snowboard cross racer Mick Dierdorff, are also very much hoping to get one.

Roughly between eight and 10 local athletes either have already qualified to represent the United States or can expect to be selected in the coming days. Another four are likely in line to represent other nations.

Taylor Fletcher lands on podium

Steamboat Springs Nordic combined skier Taylor Fletcher ensured he’d be a part of any Monday conversations relating to the United States Nordic combined Olympic contingent with a dynamite performance Sunday at a Continental Cup event in Rena, Norway.

Fletcher entered the weekend in perhaps the most significant slump of his career — one that includes a World Championship medal and two trips to the Olympics. He hadn’t yet scored any points on the World Cup and hadn’t raced on the Continental Cup, a lower-level circuit where other Americans had been scoring earlier in the season.

By any Olympic team selection logic that came down to points, he was at the bottom of the pile.

He changed that with two big performances in Rena. He was fourth in Saturday’s event, then raced to third place Sunday. Those were the two best United States performances on that circuit this season and take Fletcher, if nothing else, off the bottom.

“It was a great day, for sure,” Fletcher said in a USA Nordic news release. “I was nervous going into the comp round, after my trial jump wasn’t what I wanted. But, I managed to throw down a good jump and, as I watched the rest of the field, I knew that I would have a good chance in the race.”

He jumped to 19th place, then powered his way up through the field to the lead pack by the end of the third of four laps, joining a pair of young Austrians, Dominik Terzer and Martin Fritz. They worked together to keep Fletcher in third.

“The Austrians started playing games at the end, picking up the pace quite a bit, and I was just fried,” he said. “It’s tough to lose a sprint two days in a row, but I’m quite happy with my result today. The goal today was third or better, so I’m definitely satisfied.”

Contacted by Steamboat Today, Fletcher said the exact relevance of Sunday’s finish on his Olympic hopes wouldn’t be clear until after today’s meetings, but no matter what it means long term, it was a good day for him.

“This weekend was good for Taylor,” U.S. Continental Cup coach Tomas Matura said in the release. “He’s started jumping better, and he put together two really good races, so I’m happy with his result.”

Adam Loomis scored points with a 29th place finish. Grand Andrews was in at 37th and Jared Schumate at 40th.

On the World Cup, the four-man team of Jasper Good, Ben Berend, Ben Loomis and Stephen Schumann combined to place 11th.

Muss again near the top

Alpine snowboarder Aaron Muss posted a big result in his last weekend, as well. He placed sixth on Saturday in a parallel giant slalom World Cup event in Slovenia. He was 17th a day later and was the top U.S. rider in both events, as he has been for much of the season.

The sixth-place finish matched the best result of his career.

Among other Steamboat-trained riders, Vic Wild was 14th and 21st, Robby Burns 32nd and 36th, Michael Trapp 43rd and 47th, Ryan Rosencranz 46th and 60th, Christian de Olivier 48th and 50th and Steve MacCutcheon 50th and 52nd

On the women’s side, Ester Ledecka won the only race she competed in. Maggie Rose Carrigan was 36th one day, matching her best World Cup finish, and was 40th the other day. Millie Bongiorno was 43rd in one event.

Kauf 15th at World Cup

Competing at a moguls World Cup event in Canada, Jaelin Kauf had what’s been one of very few “off rounds” for her this season. She made the 16-skier finals but didn’t advance to the superfinal, placing 15th.

Olivia Giaccio placed 49th.

To reach Joel Reichenberger, call 970-871-4253, email jreichenberger@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @JReich9.

The post Steamboat athletes await roster results for U.S. Olympic team appeared first on Park Record.

Bryan Fletcher knows a thing or two about the high-stress race to make the U.S. Olympic Team, and he knows the crushing reality of coming up short.

This was before Fletcher became a fixture on the World Cup and the top U.S. skier on that circuit season in and season out; before he’d won one of those events; before he made the 2014 Olympic team and before he locked up his spot on the 2018 team on Saturday.

Fletcher was overjoyed to win the U.S. Nordic Combined Olympic Trials on Saturday in Park City, Utah, guaranteeing himself a spot on the team that will compete starting in February at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea with a 12.8-second victory over Adam Loomis. Ben Loomis was third, 29.6 seconds behind Fletcher and Taylor Fletcher was fourth, 1:07.7 back.

“It’s a huge relief,” Bryan Fletcher said. “I know I’m going to PyeongChang. I can focus on training and the process of building up to it from here on out, which is really awesome.”

As the top-scoring American on the World Cup circuit — the only scoring American — Fletcher was basically a lock to make the team. But he learned in 2010 not to take anything for granted.

He entered the 2009-10 winter confident he could qualify for the Olympic squad and seemingly first in line for that opportunity among a small group of young skiers looking to fill out the team behind medal-minded veterans Todd Lodwick, Johnny Spillane and Billy Demong.

Fletcher was selected to fill one of the nation’s World Cup spots to start the season, an honor but one with a catch: he’d need to put up strong results on the circuit and it was of course considerably more difficult to do it on the World Cup than it would be on the Continental Cup, the minor league circuit of Nordic combined.

He needed a top-30 finish to score those points, but it continually eluded him. He was 41st in one competition, 39th in another and 50th after that.

Still, he was in a strong position heading into the holiday break.

“Everyone else got an opportunity at the World Cup and it looked like I was still shaking out to be the next best guy,” he said.

That started to change with the last competition of December when Brett Camerota jumped up for an 18th-place finish in a World Cup.

Then, in the second weekend of competition in January, Taylor Fletcher, Bryan’s younger brother of four years, finished 29th in a World Cup. An injury for Bryan helped seal the deal in the eyes of coaches and by late January, just two months after he’d started the season hoping to make the team, those dreams were officially dashed.

So no, making the Olympic team isn’t something Fletcher takes for granted, even when it seems like he’s a sure thing.

If it looked like it should be easy on paper Saturday, it proved anything but thanks to a lackluster jump.

Ben Loomis, fresh off a very strong weekend at a trio of Continental Cup events in Steamboat Springs, leaped out to a huge lead in the jumping portion. His older brother Adam Loomis started 56 seconds behind him in second, Ben Berend another 23 seconds back in third, Jasper Good at 1:21 behind Ben Loomis in fourth and finally Bryan Fletcher was fifth, 1:24 behind Loomis and Taylor Fletcher sixth, 1:54 back.

Bryan Fletcher worked his way up the pack slowly, careful to maintain his pace for a dual at the end.

“The goal was to try and make up time, but also have a little for the last lap,” he said.

He cut into Ben Loomis’s lead by 30 seconds in the first two laps, then another 30 seconds in the third, pulling within 10 seconds.

“I took a few deep breaths and pushed a little harder to catch him,” he said.

Adam Loomis clung to Fletcher for the jump, but neither of the Loomis brothers could hang on when Fletcher applied the heat in the final lap, skating away to win the race by a comfortable 12 seconds.

He’s going to Pyeong- Chang, no matter what anyone else does at the World Cups in January.

“I expected to be there and I knew I was capable even if I didn’t win this event, but to have that guarantee, to be named to the team, that’s a huge relief,” he said. “It’s just awesome. I’m so excited to be going and very excited to be a two-time Olympian.”

That 2010 team went on to be a legendary one and Camerota brought home a silver medal as a part of the U.S. team relay event.

He retired soon after.

It was a heartbreaking time, Fletcher said, not because of their success but because of the lack of his. Eight years later, however, he has no regrets.

“I was definitely disappointed, bummed out, but in hindsight, it was the best thing that could have happened to me,” he said. “I wouldn’t be the athlete I am today if it wasn’t for missing that Olympics. Not making it was an opportunity to reevaluate my career and the path I wanted to go. I realized I really did want to be one of the best and be a competitive skier every year and the next year I came out motivated, took a tremendous step up and that was really the start of the World Cup career.”

To reach Joel Reichenberger, call 970-871-4253, email jreichenberger@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @JReich9.

The post Bryan Fletcher’s going to the Olympics and he’s not taking that for granted appeared first on Park Record.

Two more tickets were handed out to the 2018 Winter Olympics on Sunday at the Team USA Olympic Trials event in Park City, Utah.

Sarah Hendrickson, of Park City, won the women’s ski jumping competition and Michael Glasder, from Cary, Illinois, won the men’s event, each guaranteeing themselves a spot in PyeongChang, South Korea when the Olympics begins Feb. 9.

Hendrickson became the first woman to ski jump in the Olympics in 2014 when she drew the No. 1 bib in the first Olympic women’s ski jump competition.

A big first-round jump and a solid performance on her second attempt ensured she’d make a return trip to the big show.

She had the top-scoring jumps of the nine competing women in each round, and after she touched down on her second jump, she skidded to a stop in front of a huge, roaring crowd at Utah Olympic Park, site of the 2002 Winter Olympics. She buried her face in her hands and was quickly swarmed by teammates offering congratulations.

“I never really get the opportunity to jump in front of a home crowd,” she said in  a U.S. team news release. “For me, my goal was to have fun and smile today. When I got up today that was what I set my mind on. I love ski jumping and that’s why we are all out here.”

Abby Ringquist, also of Park City, was second, with 248.1 points to Hendrickson’s 263.4. Nita Englund, who trained for several seasons with the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, placed third at 238.9. New York skier Nina Lussi was third after the first jump and was in the hunt for the title but fell while landing a monster second jump. She was carted away by medical staff, but still scored high enough to finish fourth.

Steamboat skier Annika Belshaw, at 15 years old the youngest competitor in the event, was sixth, while fellow Steamboater Logan Sankey was seventh. Both entered as longshots to make the Olympic team, but put together two strong jumps. They remain on the outside looking in, but have already recorded strong international results this season. Belshaw was 11th and 13th in a mid-December Continental Cup in Norway and Sankey 15th and 16th. They will have several more opportunities to bolster their resumes before the Olympic team is official.

The top Steamboat competitor on the men’s side, Decker Dean, wasn’t qualified to compete in the Olympic trials.

Glasder earned his first trip to the Olympics with his performance. He edged out Kevin Bickner, 270.0 points to 268.6. William Rhoads was third at 256.6 to round out the podium.

Hendrickson and Glasder join Steamboat Springs skier Bryan Fletcher, who earned a spot at the Olympics by winning Saturday’s Nordic combined Olympic trials event.

The rest of the Olympic delegation won’t be officially announced until late January.

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