August 15, 2012 (Courchevel, France) – Oh, what a night. The crowd loved it, the jumpers loved it, and it marks a great idea whose time has come. It was also a night that had heads turning from the collective results of the United States.

USA Ski Jumping teamed up Tuesday evening with members of the VISA USA Women’s Ski Jumping team to take an impressive fifth place in a historic first-ever mixed gender team event under the lights in this lovely French Alp community on the Hill Tremplin Le Praz (HS 96M) ski jump. It marked competition so close that the top three teams were separated by a scant 2.4 points. Everyone seemed delighted by tonight’s action and excitement.

A powerful Japan team consisting of Yuki Ito, Sara Takanashi, Noriaki Kasai and Yuta Watase took the win with 930.8 points. It’s interesting to note that Takanashi is but 15-years-old, while the smiling veteran Kasai is 40-years-old.

Germany was second with 928.9 winning the silver medal, while Austria was third with 928.4 points. Norway finished fourth jumping their number 2 and 3 ranked athletes, just nipping the USA squad. The USA scored points of 872.3 behind the jumping of Alissa Johnson, Jessica Jerome, Anders Johnson and Pete Frenette.

Jerome had outstanding jumps of 90.5 and 94.0 meters, while Alissa Johnson had jumps of 83.0 and 85.0 meters. Frenette had two rides of 79.5 and 83.5 meters, while Anders Johnson had 87.5 and 87.0 meters in his two competition rides. “This was a great experience for the USA”, said Coach Clint Jones, “Our guys performed ok, and while there is still room for improvement, we had some strong results. This was a test event to see how things would stack up, and with only average results from our guys, our USA squad was right in the mix. Both the men and the women had great fun and everyone seems happy with the new team event.”

USASJ Athletic Director Alan Johnson–whose son Anders and daughter Alissa both took part–told the USASJ News Bureau that he was thrilled saying…”If we can continue to focus on the technical tasks at hand, we will have some positive momentum from this—it also so gives us a long missing confidence boost. I’m doing back flips I’m so happy.”

Individual competition continues Wednesday (today) with more FIS Summer Grand Prix action and then will move to Hinterzarten, Germany for events August 17-19.

TEAM RESULTS
1. JPN 930.8
2. GER 928.9
3. AUT 928.4
4. NOR 889.4
5. USA 872.3
6. ITA
7. FRA
8. SUI
9. SLO
10. RUS

QUOTABLE…..Alissa Johnson: “Today was fantastic. It was such a blast for all the teams and something different from what we are normally used to. It’s nice to see the men and women integrating together in one team. For Anders and I, it was really special that we had the chance to compete together. Anders is my biggest fan so I always feel more confident when he is around.”