PARK CITY, UT (Dec. 29) – Jessica Jerome (Park City, UT) wrote her name in the history books Sunday becoming the first nominee to the debut women’s ski jumping Olympic Team with her victory at the 2014 Olympic Team Trials for Ski Jumping at Utah Olympic Park. Sunday’s historic event was broadcast live on NBC while 5,000 fans cheered in the finish area. The remainder of the historic 2014 U.S. Olympic Team that will compete in Sochi will be selected from World Cups and announced Jan. 22.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Jessica Jerome (Park City, UT) wrote her name in the history books Sunday becoming the first nominee to the debut women’s ski jumping Olympic Team with her victory at the 2014 Olympic Team Trials for Ski Jumping at Utah Olympic Park.
- Sunday’s historic event was broadcast live for a national audience on NBC while 5,000 fans cheered in the finish area, the most since the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.
- Jerome jumped into the lead ahead of teammate Lindsey Van (Park City, UT) with her first round jump and stayed there throughout the competition.
- World Champion Sarah Hendrickson (Park City, UT) was in the crowd Sunday, cheering on her teammates. Hendrickson expects to return to snow in the next couple weeks.
- Women’s ski jumping makes its historic Olympic debut in February in Sochi, where women jumpers from all over the world will compete for the first time.
- The remainder of the historic 2014 U.S. Olympic Team that will compete in Sochi will be selected from World Cups and announced Jan. 22.
QUOTES
Jessica Jerome
It feels like I can breathe. I feel relieved because I earned that spot so now I have a good month to really focus on my training and not really have to worry about earning my spot.
Our coach actually came into the locker room this morning and gave us this little motivational speech and he's like, "Girls, all these people are out here for you. You may not realize it, but this is historic. This has never happened before, so just embrace it and enjoy it." I thought that was pretty cool.
I have never competed in front of a crowd like this in Park City. This was the coolest thing I've ever seen up at the Olympic Park by far. It's just awesome.
Honestly, I don't know if I've wrapped my head around it yet. It sounds cliché, but it is a dream come true and I can't wait to go and represent my country.
Lindsey Van
It was great to jump today in front of the home crowd. It was fun. It was great to have the support of the community. We grew up in a great place with a good history of the Olympics. It's great to see so many friendly faces and it was a good day.
Alissa Johnson
This crowd has been with us through thick and thin so it was really fun to come out and celebrate how long we've been fighting to get here. I can't believe how many people showed up and how loud it was. More people showed up for this than do for most World Cup events so it was a lot of fun. We felt a lot of love.
Today was probably the best I've jumped all season, if not ever. Things are looking good. There were only eight points between the top three of us, which in ski jumping is not much.
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