October 31, 2013 (Park City, Utah) – During a two-week period in the month of October, three members of the U.S. National Team men’s ski jumping team spent time training in Slovenia and Austria and were able to log some important time in the wind tunnel at the Akrapovic Factory.

Making the trip were U.S. athletes Pete Frenette, Nick Alexander and Nick Fairall, who worked under the direction of U.S. International trainer, Bine Norcic.

“I’ve never been in a wind tunnel before, so I was very excited to get this opportunity, it was a ton of fun and proved to be very beneficial, providing me with a wealth of information,” commented Fairall, the national large hill champion.

Coach Norcic agreed saying….”I think the guys were really satisfied with the whole camp. We were in the wind tunnel three times, jumped a lot in Planica. For sure it was an intensive two weeks, but this is the only way to go about it. I saw some really positive changes in flight positions from the tunnel experience, changes especially with body position and with the hands and arms.”

Besides the wind tunnel, one of the main purposes of this trip was to get some last training jumps in before winter, and to test skis and jumps suits.

According to Nick Fairall the opportunity in the wind tunnel gave the skiers the opportunity to see first-hand the effectiveness of different body positions in flight and the differences between various take offs. “ The knowledge I gained from the wind tunnel immediately effected my jumping and made very noticeable improvements in my flight position, even after just one session,” Fairall added.

Head U.S. Men’s jumping coach Clint Jones said that time in the wind tunnel is time well spent. “There are many things that we (the coaches) tell the guys that are difficult to feel and work on while actually ski jumping. The wind tunnel gives them time to play with different things and get instant feedback on which flight positions are the most effective. On the ski jump, the athletes have around four seconds of inrun time and about the same amount of time in the air. This really expands the amount of time to work on things,” Jones said.

U.S. ski jumpers hope to return to jumping on snow in Park City, UT before November 10th at Utah Olympic Park according to Jones.