February 12, 2010 (Whistler, BC) – In a big step for U.S. ski jumping, each
“Our goal is to show our best ski jumps this winter here, not at another place,” said Jochen Danneberg, the 1976 Olympic silver medalist for East Germany who coaches the U.S. Ski Jumping Team as part of the Project X jumping program. “It’s the right place to do it.”
Seventeen-year-old Peter Frenette (Saranac Lake, NY) led the U.S. trio in 30th, jumping 97 meters and earning a score of 115.0 as friends, family and U.S. supporters urged him on. “It’s nice,” Frenette said of his cheering section. “I had dinner with them last night. They had some words of encouragement for me today, and it’s good to have some people that we know.
“I’ve usually been jumping on the level below world class, so I’ve been watching these guys on TV,” Frenette said. “Coming here and seeing them compete against me is definitely a shock. It’s exciting.”
(Lebanon, NH) was 35th, and Anders Johnson (Park City, UT) was 40th to earn the final qualification spot. Germany’s Michael Uhrmann led all qualifiers with a score of 138.5. Alexander jumped 96 meters for a score of 113, consistent with his training results but still far from his top form, which Danneberg thinks he’ll find. “It was really not his best jump,” he said. “He jumped too much with his upper body, straight up, and that’s why he lost speed in the air and couldn’t go so far.”
Still, without the wet and windy conditions of training jumps, Alexander was happy to be able to focus on qualifying. “It’s kind of a relief just to go up there and have the jumps and not to have to worry about anything but the jumping,” he said.
Johnson, the only return Olympian on the team, went 93.5 meters and earned a score of 108.5. Johnson had led the USA in training jumps Thursday. “I expected him (to be) even better than it was today,” Danneberg said. “He can do it much better, and he did it better in training. So now, I hope he can show his true ski champion tomorrow.”
The first round of Saturday’s medal competition begins at 9:45 a.m. local time, with the final round starting at 10:45.