Tuesday was mentor day at the Ski Club’s Springer Tour

Tuesday was a day of inspiration and learning at the Park City Ski and Snowboard Club’s 25th Springer Tour.

National team athletes and club coaches showed young ski jumpers how it’s done. There were mentoring sessions on small and large hills and an afternoon field session at the Basin Rec Fieldhouse.

The event takes place all week in Park City and the surrounding area. It is one of the world’s premier summer events in ski jumping and Nordic combined, culminating in a large hill competition on Saturday from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Utah Olympic Park.

Training sessions on the small and large hills at the UOP began on Tuesday morning. The sun was shining, water was flowing onto the hills and the young jumpers were gaining valuable experience.

Although many of these young jumpers are from Park City, Mentor Day is always a unique opportunity to hear new voices that they may even consider idols.

US ski jumper Paige Jones coached small hill jumpers on Tuesday. She said she has now coached five or six ski jumping tournaments; Jones is not competing this year.

“Sports development is something I’m really passionate about, especially for girls,” Jones said. “We want to make sure that girls continue to be excited about the sport and that the knowledge that the national team members gain is passed on.”

Jones remembers how excited he was as a child and seeing national team members as a child. The Parkite and club member started ski jumping at the age of nine.

Jones won a silver medal at the 2023 U.S. Championships.

“The technique is not as important as the fun,” Jones added. “You have to have the courage to get off those hills.”

Robert Lock, one of the club’s head coaches, said there have been few injuries on the UOP’s small hills and even fewer on the large ones.

Jones understands the importance of events like the Springer Tour Mentoring Day, as women’s ski jumping typically experiences a decline in performance. She said there is currently a lack of older teenagers entering the sport, which will become a problem when the current members of the national team hang up their boots and skis.

The US national ski jumping team is currently based in Lillehammer, Norway.

“I think it’s going really well. I’ve always enjoyed this day,” Lock said. “A lot of times these young kids here only hear about the national team, and when they can actually interact with them, it kind of brings the sport together even more.”

Lock said the other national team athletes who joined Jones were Ben Loomis and Stephen Schumann from Nordic combined and Casey Larson and Sam Macuga from the ski jumping teams.

Lock has been training with the PCSSC for eight years, but first took part in the Springer Tour in 2007. Lock is himself a former British ski jumper and last strapped on his skis for a competition in 2019.

Nine-year-old Nicky Meyers returned to the small hills as a jumper on Tuesday. He is most looking forward to the competition later in the week; the small hill competition is scheduled for Saturday from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the UOP.

“When jumping, I’m best at the run-up,” says Meyers. “I also like the flying part of it.”

Meyers said Jones gave him constructive criticism about his jumping and said he would advise other kids to consider competing in the jump in future years.

Eight-year-old Lila Schnell also had a lot of fun with Meyers on the small hills. It was her very first jumping tournament.

Regarding what Schnell learned on Tuesday, she said: “How to do my final run and how to jump really far with these skis, which are very different from alpine skis.”

Schnell also said that anyone with a little experience can join in and have fun taking part in Springer.

Wednesday is a practice day at the event. There will also be a coaches’ roundtable and a club barbecue, both at Utah Olympic Park.