June 24, 2013 (Park City, UT) – In a sure sign of the coming 2014 Olympic Winter Games season, members of the US National ski jumping team have arrived in Europe to begin their first international preparation period.

After leaving the US Sunday, the team comprised of Peter Frenette, Anders Johnson, Nick Alexander and Nick Fairall, will spend two weeks in Europe at the ski jumps of Stams, AUT and Kranj, SLO, they will be accompanied by USA Head Jumping Coach Clint Jones.

In an interview today Coach Jones told the USASJ News Bureau the camp was part of a very important season build up, noting…”We will be spending a lot of team with our new European-based coach Bine Norcic, which will be very exciting and we will be dealing with a host of issues like organizing rental vans for the season, training plans and locations, and gathering all the equipment from skis, to suits to bindings. We will be looking to test a lot of new equipment during the summer, and we will be looking to get some solid training with the many European teams who will also be in the area.”

Jones also stressed the importance of the US team to have close contact with the Europeans early in the summer, “so that they know exactly how high the level of competition is going into the summer training phase. This will help provide great motivation for our team, not only for the four athletes that are with us in Europe, but also those that they will be training with when they return.”

January 03, 2013 (Innsbruck, Austria) – Park City, Utah’s Anders Johnson has made it into the Big Show for tomorrow qualifying 47th with a jump of 112.5 meters on the famed Olympic ski jumps at the Bergisel Hill in this town in the Tirol region of Austria. The top fifty ski jumpers qualify, in this, the 61st edition of the Four Hills Tournee.

Johnson was pleased with his showing..”I feel great, I’ve been close so far, but this is like getting a monkey off my back. It’s good. I felt my quali jump was pretty good, and got some good lift and while my jump wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, it was ok…I’ve still got things to work on for tomorrow here in Innsbruck.”

Regarding the final jump, the two time US Olympian said… “The hardest part for me is the qualifying, I’m still an underdog, but–who knows–a little bit of luck can go a long way in this sport.”

Pete Frenette (Saranac Lake, NY) was close to qualifying again today with a jump of 109.5 meters, which placed him in 53rd, while Canada’s Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes (Calgary) had a 110.5 meter jump and was 55th. The 21-year-old Canadian competes for the Altius Nordic Ski Club in Calgary.

Both Gregor Schlierenzauer (AUT), who had a jump of 123.5 m, and the Four Hills overall leader Norwegian Anders Jacobsen who leapt to a jump of 125.5 m today were pre-qualified.

In the finals Johnson will be paired with Polish star, 21 year-old, Maciej Kot of Zakopane, in the knock out format. The Polish team was dominant in today’s qualification, with both Kot and Kamil Stoch sharing the win with 125 m jumps.

Steamboat Springs native, USA Coach Clint Jones was also pleased with Johnson’s performance, saying… “Overall Anders jumps were close again, like the other guys– but even in his last jump his take off move wasn’t as good as his earlier jumps but he did execute what we have been talking about. He was more patient with his hips and in keeping his skis under him so he was able to kind of build a little longer over the knoll, if he can do that in the finals, it’s easily another five meters pretty quickly. Anders qualification should actually take some pressure off him, which should be good. But the goal is still to focus on the technique side of things that we have been working on. Then the results will take care of themselves.”