February 19, 2006 (Pragelato, Italy) – U.S. ski jumper Alan Alborn (Anchorage, AK) continued his comeback from a pair of knee injuries, but failed to make the second round cut in Saturday’s K125 large hill competition as he finished 43rd as the only U.S. jumper in the finals. Austrian Thomas Morgenstern won the gold medal.

Morgenstern just edged out teammate Andreas Kofler by a score of 276.9 to 276.8. Taking bronze was Norwegian Lars Bystoel.

Alborn’s first round jump of 108.0m, which earned him 79.9 points, was not enough to get him a second jump. The top 30 jumpers from the field of 50 advanced to get a second jump.

“It was a little better jump (than the trial round),” said Alborn. “It’s just blowing behind me. You have 95 kilometers an hour and you’re jumping into that. It feels like you should have a really solid amount of pressure on your body, but there’s not. So it’s more of kinda floating in space and trying to stay away from the snow as long as possible.”

Morgenstern posted jumps of 133.0m and 140.0m and was the lone competitor to hit the 140m mark. Canada’s Stefan Read was the top North American placing 30th with 188.2 points.

Alborn, a two-time Olympian, has returned full force after battling through two knee injuries. In ’03, he suffered a right knee injury. Alborn retired during the winter of ’04 and returned to the World Cup circuit in ’05, only to tear his left ACL in a non-jumping incident while skiing. He missed Worlds and had reconstructive surgery. An accelarated rehab followed and he was cleared to jump again in early July of ’05.

“I’m happy,” said Alborn. “When I hurt my knee last season and going into the summer, I was pretty skeptical about even making it back to jumping. All the muscle disappeared from my leg. I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t bend my knee. That’s pretty humbling. But then I just worked hard, did all the therapy — maybe more than I was supposed to. But I was able to get back on the hill in the summer, make really small steps all the time, and next thing I knew I’m here (at the Olympics).”

Yesterday’s event was the second competition for Alborn at the ’06 Games. He finished 40th in the normal hill this past Sunday.

“I hope to keep building the rest of the season, get more jumps and more World Cups with these guys, and go back this summer and get my strength back where it needs to be and hopefully have a team behind me and have some more fun,” said Alborn.

Monday’s team LH event wraps up the jumping competition at the ’06 Olympics.

XX OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES
Pragelato, ITA – Feb. 18, 2006
Ski Jumping Individual LH

1 MORGENSTERN Thomas AUT 276.9
2 KOFLER Andreas AUT 276.8
3 BYSTOEL Lars NOR 250.7
4 LJOEKELSOEY Roar NOR 242.8
5 HAUTAMAEKI Matti FIN 242.4
6 KUETTEL Andreas SUI 239.1
7 ROMOEREN Bjoern Einar NOR 238.2
8 OKABE Takanobu JPN 236.8
9 AHONEN Janne FIN 234.1
10 JANDA Jakub CZE 230.5

30 READ Stefan CAN 188.2

Not Qualified for Final Round
43 ALBORN Alan USA 79.9
50 GORHAM Graeme CAN 61.1