Tuesday was a day of inspiration and learning at Park City Ski and Snowboard Club’s 25th Springer Tournee.
National team athletes and club coaches showed young ski jumpers the ropes. There were small and large hill mentorship sessions, with a field session in the afternoon at Basin Rec Fieldhouse.
The event will run all week in Park City and its surrounding areas. It is one of the world’s premier ski jumping and Nordic combined summer events, culminating in a Saturday large hill competition from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Utah Olympic Park.
The small and large hill sessions began Tuesday morning at the UOP. The sun was out, the water was flowing on the ramps and young jumpers were getting valuable experience.
While many of these young jumpers are from Park City, mentorship day is always a unique time. They get to hear from new voices, whom they may be currently looking up to as idols.
U.S. women’s ski jumping athlete Paige Jones mentored small hill jumpers Tuesday. She said it’s now been five to six Springer Tournees as a coach; Jones is not competing this year.
“I’m really passionate about the sport development, specifically on the girls side,” Jones said. “Making sure that we keep girls engaged in the sport, and making sure that the knowledge that is being gained by the national team members is being passed down.”
Jones remembers being an excited kid, seeing national team members while growing up. The Parkite and club member first started ski jumping at nine years old.
Jones was a silver medalist at the 2023 U.S. national championships.
“Technique isn’t as important as just having fun,” Jones added. “Having the guts to kind of go off these hills.”
Robert Lock, a main coach with the club, said there have been just a few injuries ever on the UOP’s small hills and even fewer on the large ones.
Jones feels the importance of events like mentorship day at the Springer Tournee because of the drop off that typically happens on the women’s side in ski jumping. She said there is a lack of elder teenagers coming up in the sport right now, which will become an issue when the current national team members hang up their boots and skis.
The U.S. national ski jumping team is now based out of Lillehammer, Norway.
“I think it’s going really well. I’ve always liked this day,” said Lock. “A lot of times these little kids only here hear about the national team, so that when they actually get to interact with them, it kind of brings the sport more together.”
Lock said the other national team athletes joining Jones were Ben Loomis and Stephen Schumann from Nordic combined and Casey Larson and Sam Macuga from the ski jumping teams.
Lock has been coaching with PCSSC or the past eight years, but his first Springer Tournee action was in 2007. Lock is a former British ski jumper himself who last strapped on his skis for competition in 2019.
Nine-year-old Nicky Meyers was a returning jumper to the small hills Tuesday. He’s most looking forward to competition later in the week; the small hills competition is slated for Saturday from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the UOP.
“I’m best at my run in jumping,” said Meyers. ” I also like the flight part of it.”
Meyers said Jones was offering him constructive critiques on his jumping. He’d advise other kids to come out and participate in the Springer in years to come.
Eight-year-old Lila Schnell was also having a great time on the small hills with Meyers. It was her very first Springer Tournee.
On what Schnell was learning Tuesday, she said, “How to do my end run and how to jump really far, use these skis, which are a lot different from alpine.”
Schnell also thought that with a little bit of experience, anyone could come out and have fun as a Springer participant.
Wednesday will be a training day at the event. There will also be a coaches round table and a club barbeque, both at the Utah Olympic Park.
