Austrian men’s team, Germany’s women’s team and Slovenia’s mixed team celebrated victories on the last two days of ski jumping at the Junior World Ski Championships in Lake Placid, USA.
Team events completed the fascinating rivalry at the MacKenzie Intervale Ski Jumping Complex. Austria’s Stephan Embacher bagged three medals including two Golds. He defended his title and led the men’s team to a convincing victory on Friday. The local heroes could celebrate, too.
Simon Steinberger, Lukas Haagen, Nikolaus Humml and Embacher collected 932.5 points to seal the win in the men’s team competition with an advantage of 22.4 points over Slovenia (Urban Simnic, Nik Bergant Smerajc, Enej Faletic, Ziga Jancar).
Sensationally, Bronze went to the local heroes as Jason Colby, Henry Loher, Bryce Kloc and Tate Frantz achieved the first-ever team medal for the USA. They fought until the very last jump for a medal with Germany and Poland. Coming into the last group, the USA’s athletes were in fifth place, but Frantz’s 98-meter attempt moved them to the podium.
“This feels really, really good. We definitely knew it was possible as a team, but we didn’t want to talk about it and jinx anything. After the first round, it was very close. We were quite a bit back, though, but within striking distance, and I think that’s the best position to be in. No stress, nothing to lose, just to jump our hearts out,” excited Frantz said.