It’s Friday, so we’re hearing from a USASJ national team athlete. Today it’s Casey Larson who has been instrumental in supporting the FLY CAMP summer program for athletes 13-17. Read on!
CASEY LARSON
Norge Ski Club
Reading all the story projects year in and year out I am always honored to be an athlete and a part of such an incredible community. Sometimes our world can feel small, and the story project always makes it feel large and very special.
I have had the pleasure of collecting lots of stories myself. Being an athlete on the national team since 2017 I have seen the growth of this team and am lucky to count myself as a member of one of the fastest improving teams on the World Cup circuit.
Although as I’ve been around longer and longer and fallen more and more in love with this incredible sport I have been enjoying the stories I’m creating with the Fly Camp program potentially the most.
Fly Camp is USA Nordic’s development program and any athlete from the ages of 13-17 is welcome to apply! We have a long training camp in July every year and have plans to expand.
Potentially the most rewarding aspect I have found is watching kids find the same love for ski jumping that I have. The desire to go farther and farther on ski jumps and push your body’s limits is something that people often underestimate as they improve and move to bigger hills. As I only coach for a couple weeks a year and only work with the teenagers I only have a small glimpse into the lives of these kids and I try to leave as good an impression as I can. Sometimes you need to push and sometimes you need to wrangle the goals and expectations.
The biggest example of an athlete toting the line I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing was an athlete from this past year of Fly Camp. He was on the younger side and was determined to win the 4th of July elimination competition in Steamboat Springs. Honestly, I thought it was a perfect goal to set. On one hand it was extremely lofty. If he had a jump similar to any of his training jumps, he probably would not win. Although his mind was set, as if he spoke it into existence, all I heard, and his teammates heard, was that he would win the longest standing.
As a coach, my job was to try my best to make sure he was not all talk. I was worried he would not take the wake-up call well. I explained that he needed to “set his flight” over the knoll and carry more speed or else he wouldn’t stand a chance against the big boys that were competing that day. To my surprise as a rookie coach he took it extremely well and believed in what I was saying maybe more than I believed it myself.
The day of the competition everything went perfectly. If you are unfamiliar with an elimination format it just cuts the field in half every jump. To advance you really just need to narrowly make it in the top half every jump. He did just that, and kept advancing. It came to the round of 8 and he has a massive jump, I believe it was the farthest of anyone by a couple meters and this young buck became the one to beat. I have never been more nervous before a final round in my entire life.
The wind was picking up and I knew it could mean some far jumps. I give our main character, the young buck, the flag so he lets it rip. Very rarely have I seen an athlete that high off the ground and he just splats at 80 meters. I couldn’t believe it. Our hero crashed.
I was heartbroken. He had the farthest jump of the day but just couldn’t quite hold on. Although hindsight being hindsight the fall taught him more than every good jump he had that camp. Maybe it wasn’t the lesson he wanted to learn but it’s the lesson he got. Ski jumping is brutal, we are at the whim of Mother Nature and no matter the training and the focus sometimes we just don’t put it to two feet. That will never change. I love ski jumping and I hope he does too now.
