Last week’s COC event in Trondheim was your first international appearance in many, many months, how was it?
Sarah Hendrickson: It was really good. It’s been a really hard year obviously. And I don’t really consider what happened in Sochi quite normal, so it was nice to go home after that, have another surgery and train really hard into the summer and then just get a sense where I was. So going to Trondheim was really nice. It was nice to have Sara there, it seems like a pretty high level for middle of the summer COC. I was happy with my result obviously and it was nice to just get a competition under my belt before winter.  I was quite nervous actually and I didn’t really expect that to happen, but going for so many months without competing it’s a whole different mindset.

Are your problems with the knee gone and away now?
SH: Finally. Honestly, I still feel it sometimes but it hasn’t been restricting my training. It took fourteen months but I’m back. I’m stronger than ever now. It was hard work but it’s nice that I’m finally past that.

How long have you been back into a full training mode now?
SH: I would say complete training mode for about 2,5-3 months only. I didn’t start summer jumping until June, and then June was kind of a rough month, because I jumped and tried to get into the full training and then my knee didn’t like it and it wasn’t used to it so I had to slow down a bit and then finally in July, and it’s been good ever since. At the moment everything’s fine and with Vasja, our new coach, I’ve been training a lot, we have been doing a lot of plyometrics among other things, kind of pushing my knee to see how much it can withstand and it’s been awesome, so I’m really satisfied.

How is training with the new coach, if at all, different to what you had before?
SH: I mean with my home coach Alan Alborn they have a very similar way of talking to the athlete and that type of things so I don’t feel like it’s a big switch. But I’m really excited, his attitude towards us is awesome and he’s really motivating, he has tons of experience, tons of connections, and I am really excited for the years to have with him.

How are you going to prepare for the upcoming winter season?
SH: We’ve been training in Central Europe for about three weeks now. Then we are going to Lake Placid, New York next week for nationals and then back home. Then hopefully we are still able to jump on plastic a little bit more until the snow sets in, and then hopefully we have cold from November and we can get snow on the hill and start training for that. In-between weeks we will just be in the gym, keeping the power and strength up.

Then of course we shall go to Lillehammer as usual. Unfortunately we only have one World Cup event in December, which is a little bit of a disappointment. We probably go there and depending on how I feel I might go to the Continental Cup in Nottoden, but that’s not sure yet. Maybe we will be training in Europe a little bit with Vasja, nice that he has connections to so many places in Central Europe, we haven’t had that before, and then back home for Christmas, and then on the road for Japan and Germany, and then obviously the World Championships.

What are your expectations for the World Championships that will be held in Falun this upcoming season, you shall be defending your title after all?
SH: I am really excited about defending my World Champion title in Falun. It’s gonna be a tough task, obviously Sara is a very strong athlete but you know, I just have to focus on myself, focus on my technique and what I need to do to have good jumps. If I have the best jumps I can have and either her or somebody else has a better jump than they deserve to win. It’s my goal this season to defend my title but I just have to take it step by step for myself and just get back into the swing of things and not to be too tough on myself with coming back from an injury.

How was your autumn training here in Central Europe the last couple of weeks?
SH: It’s been hard. We trained in Kranj and Planica before Trondheim and that was really good. Then we came to Szczyrk, it was tough for the weather, a lot of rain but just good being with Vasja for the first time. It’s really good to talk with him and see what he wants us to work on. Jumping in Zakopane was a little bit a waste of time basically to be honest, but that’s OK. I like travelling, I missed travelling so much when I was home while the other girls were travelling. It was really, really hard on me and it just made me realize how much I love Ski Jumping and I love travelling. It’s great to be back. Travelling is part of that business/job. I loved seeing all the girls in Trondheim. It just reminded me how much I love the sport and how much I love women ski jumpers and how much I missed it, and why I trained so hard to get back.

What are the other jumpers on the US team doing, we haven’t seen many of them this summer?
SH: Lindsey hurt her knee at the end of the season. She’s definitely gonna jump this winter. I don’t know if she is going to compete, she hasn’t decided yet. That really depends on her health and her ability.

Alissa is going to school right now taking the year off.

Abby also had a knee surgery so she’s recovering from that and hopefully will be jumping again in December. She’s shown that she wants to keep jumping for four more years, which is awesome.

Jessica and I are completely on board for this year and training.

And then we have some other younger, well not younger I guess but just juniors – Nina Lussi and Nita, and then Tara Geraghty-Moats, who is new to the team. She jumped when she was younger, took some time off and is now back. It’s really nice to have different girls to travel with and people to push us, so we think we are in a good place for team USA.