Lake Placid’s Tate Frantz competes this past weekend in the FIS Junior World Championships at Whistler, British Columbia. He will be entering his first FIS Ski Jumping World Cup this weekend in his hometown. (Provided photo — Tyler Ng/USA Nordic Sport)

LAKE PLACID — For the first time in 32 years, Lake Placid will host an International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) Ski Jumping World Cup from Friday to Sunday at the Olympic Jumping Complex. The competition is for men’s ski jumping on the HS 128-meter hill — the big jump (the smaller one is the HS 100-meter hill).

The last time this village hosted FIS Ski Jumping World Cup was in December 1990, when most of the athletes competing this weekend weren’t even born.

The World Cup comes toward the end of the season, with athletes positioning for the World Championships in two weeks. The stop in this village is the 13th of 15 on the tour, culminating with the World Championships from Feb. 24 to March 4, in Planica, Slovenia.

The last time the United States hosted the event was in 2004 in Park City, Utah. The World Cup calendar date for this weekend was initially planned at a venue in the U.S., Iron Mountain, Michigan, but Iron Mountain had to drop out due to financial issues in August 2022.

The World Cup was subsequently replaced in Lake Placid after the venues’ hills were homologated to international standards during the state Olympic Regional Development Authority’s recent upgrades.

“It shows the strength of our organization of ORDA to be able to host such a great event and the investment in the facility which has us to the standard to now be able to host again,” ORDA Director of Communications Darcy Norfolk said. “It’s been six months since we accepted the role of being the hosts for this big event. Kind of kudos to the team with every other event that we’ve been a part of to be able to ready for this at this juncture.”

The World Cup field will feature some of the best men’s ski jumpers in the world vying for podium finishes and points in the overall World Cup standings in two individual competitions and a Super Team event. Jumpers from Poland, Austria and Norway have dominated the top of the World Cup standings this season, with Olympic gold medalist Ryoyu Kobayashi of Japan and Olympic medalist Karl Geiger of Germany not far off. Norway’s Marius Lindvik, who soared to an Olympic gold medal in Beijing in 2022 on the large hill will also compete.

The U.S. will be represented by Erik Belshaw, an 18-year-old from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Andrew Urlaub, and Olympians Decker Dean and Casey Larson, according to USA Nordic. Belshaw has been the top World Cup jumper for the U.S. team this season.

Among the U.S. athletes competing will be Tate Frantz, of Lake Placid, who will be making his World Cup debut at the site where he first learned to ski jump.

“It’s just a testament to our ability to breed athletes and they can actually take that jump onto that World Cup stage here. It’s a really cool moment,” Norfolk said. “I think with any athletes that train in Lake Placid we’ll hear of more soon.”

Norfolk said she hopes many kids will come out to see some of the best ski jumpers in the world compete.

“They’ll see them on the hills and they feel it and they see it,” Norfolk said. “Hopefully, they’ll come back this summer now that they can train in the summer we’re available to do that.”

The event will kick off with the qualification round on Friday evening. Those who qualify will compete in events on Saturday and Sunday.

Winning jumps are determined by a point system in which the highest number of points wins. Judges evaluate an athlete’s performance based on their distance and style. Super Team, which is making its men’s World Cup debut in Lake Placid, is designed to accommodate smaller nations that are unable to field a four-person team. Each Super Team consists of two athletes per country who compete in a three-round elimination format.

As of Tuesday, Norfolk said that they were at 6,700 tickets for Saturday and 5,900 for Sunday. She added that doesn’t include season pass holders or staff.

“We’re projecting well over10,000 people,” Norfolk said. “To host a night event is always exciting. I think for Lake Placid as a community just to have this vibe. This audience here, a very international audience, is exciting for what we are in the world of sport in our community as well.”

When asked about potential future events returning to ORDA venues for the first time in years, Norfolk said they didn’t have anything planned to this magnitude but ORDA is in demand.

“The future will soon tell,” Norfolk said. “We do have an IBU Biathlon Cup that is scheduled and of course bobsled. We have a number of national competitions, but in terms of international competitions, time will tell.”

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Schedule

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Official training kicks off on Friday, with competition rounds and medals awarded on Saturday and Sunday.

On Friday, two rounds of training will start at 3 p.m., and the qualification round starts at 5 p.m.

On Saturday, the individual competition trial round begins at 9 a.m., with the first competition round at 10 a.m. In the Super team competition, the trial round starts at 4 p.m., followed by the first competition round at 5 p.m.

On Sunday, the individual competition trial round begins at 8:45 a.m., followed by the first competition round at 10:15 a.m.

For more information, visit lakeplacidlegacysites.com.