November 05, 2012 (Park City, UT) – In a joint agreement announced today USA Ski Jumping and Ski Jumping Canada announced they have reached an innovative agreement to pool coaching resources and other related programs to form an alliance as the FIS World Cup ski jumping season beckons.

USA Ski Jumping CEO Jeff Hastings said today in making the announcement…”the Canadian program faces all the same challenges that we do–they’re small with limited resources and are based 5,000 miles away from the sport’s nerve center which makes it all the more expensive to fund a competitive program. The partnership we’re forging will help both programs make the most of those precious resources. We’ll be able to climb on each others shoulders both financially and competitively. It’s going to provide an enormous lift to both programs.”

Brent Morrice, the chairman of Ski Jumping Canada said that the U.S.A. and Canada have been working together for many years and the new concept was the culminations of those efforts. “In Canada we cheer as the U.S. jumpers win internationally, and the American community cheers just as loudly when Canadian athletes win and compete with the best in the world. Now, we have a formal agreement to maximize our expertise and give the North American jumping community everything our combined organizations can give them. We will work with a common goal which is to get North American ski jumping athletes on the podium in 2014 and 2018”, he said.

While both teams will continue to represent their own nations, coaching and traveling will be but one area where the agreement will help streamline operations. In addition, both nations will benefit from the consistent coaching, Hastings added.

USA coach Clint Jones (Park City, UT) will oversee the coaching efforts on the international scene. Jones is no stranger to the Canadian program having worked for them during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. Canadian coach Gregor Linseg will shift his duties now to oversee the Canadian women’s program and will support Jones whenever both teams compete at the same venue. In addition, according to Linseg…”we have hired former Swedish coach Hartmann Wolfgang to coach some of the men’s COC events with our development team in Canada, he will be joining us in Park City soon to meet both teams and get familiar with the “Team North America” concept. We are very pleased with the way everything has come together.”

USASJ Athletic Director Alan Johnson said the innovative concept exemplifies the spirit of cooperation. “Our programs have always enjoyed close ties–and both programs have very limited financial resources. It only makes sense to combine those resources at as many levels as possible in order to optimize the quality of our programming which will allow our athletes to succeed.” The new plan will take place immediately.