Americans Kevin Bickner and Tate Frantz posted top-20 results on back-to-back days in the men’s jumping events. While in the first-ever women’s World Cup in the U.S., the team delivered a breakthrough performance.

However, the highlight of their trip to Lake Placid was during the mixed team event, where Frantz, Bickner, Annika Belshaw and Josie Johnson finished fifth, marking Team USA’s best result in this event since 2012.

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Men’s ski jumping

Team USA’s Kevin Bickner soars during Sunday’s qualification round of the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup in Lake Placid on Sunday. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

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Bickner, of Wauconda, Illinois, posted the top results for the U.S. men, placing 13th on Saturday, and finishing Sunday’s event in 14th place. It’s the best finish a U.S. jumper has had at the Lake Placid World Cup since it returned to the village in 2023.

Frantz, of Lake Placid, who is currently the top ranked American jumper, continued his strong season, placing 19th with a two-jump score of 228.6 points on Saturday and 16th on Sunday with 244.1, just behind Bickner on both days.

“It’s really fun, especially being up at the top and competing with a teammate,” Frantz said. “We ended up only 0.3 points apart in the end, so it’s fun to sort of be right there together.”

Bickner had a two-jump score of 240.3 points on Saturday and 244.4 on Sunday, in what he said was a strong weekend.

Lake Placid’s Tate Frantz takes flight during Sunday’s qualification round of the men’s FIS Ski Jumping World Cup in Lake Placid. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

“(I) definitely had some momentum going into it, but up until recently I’ve always kind of struggled on this hill, so I was unsure how I would do,” he said. “But I finally figured it out on Friday.”

During the World Cup in Lake Placid last year, Bickner placed 43rd, and said he had to change up his mindset about this hill.

“I think I just had to adjust the way I approached it and not let it intimidate me so much,” he said.

On Saturday, Norway’s Johann Andre Forfang delivered two strong jumps to secure the top spot with 259.5 points. Austria’s Jan Hoerl placed second with 256.6 points, while his teammate Daniel Tschofenig placed third with 255.

The following day, Tschofenig, of Austria, finished a top the podium with a total of 275.1 points, while Hoerl was once again second with 269.1 points. Slovenia’s Anze Lanisek placed this overall with 262.3 points.

Sunday was the most dominant day for the U.S as all seven men — Bickner, Frantz, Andrew Urlaub, Casey Larson, Erik Belshaw, Jason Colby and Decker Dean — qualified for competition.

“I don’t remember a time when we’ve had this many guys compete in a World Cup together, so I think it’s pretty cool and historic for us,” Bickner said. “We had a lot of guys score points, and a lot of guys do well. The U.S. team is as strong as it’s ever been in a really long time.”

For Frantz, this event was a bit of a “full circle moment,” as this is where he not only started ski jumping, but where he first competed on the World Cup circuit back in 2023. With his family in attendance throughout this weekend, he was happy with his results.

“The jumps were quite good, but obviously I gear for more,” he said. “I know that I can do more but I’m really, really happy with today.”

On Sunday, he only got better as he jumped. During the qualification round he placed 21st, before recording the 18th best jump in the first round and the 11th best in the second.

“I was just trying to relax and let loose,” he said. “(There was) kind of nothing to lose in the second one, worst case, I fall down a few places and best case I climb up a few. I was just trying to go for it and enjoy and it worked out well.”

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Women’s ski jumping

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The U.S. women posted some solid results in the first-ever Women’s World Cup event on U.S. soil. However, Slovenia’s Nika Prevc stole the show, finishing a top the World Cup podium on both days.

The 19-year-old World Cup leader opened up the weekend with two-jump score of 295.7 points, and flew past the competition. Norway’s Eirin Maria Kvandal was second overall with 283.6 points, followed by Canada’s Alexandria Loutitt in third with 273.2.

On Saturday, she secured her second podium with a total of 272.1 points, as Germany’s Agnes Reisch (261.2) was second and fellow German Selina Freitag (254.7) was third.

Five American women — Annika Belshaw, Josie Johnson, Paige Jones, Sam Macuga and Sandra Sproch — qualified for Saturday’s competition, with Sproch making her World Cup debut. Following some high winds, the women’s comeptition was rescheduled to a bit later and allowed the athletes to reset.

“That was really good for me, because otherwise I wouldn’t have qualified for second round,” Johnson said. “So, I was really lucky in that aspect that I got to really have two nice jumps.”

Belshaw led the way with a strong 19th-place finish, while Johnson secured 27th, setting the stage for a big weekend. Belshaw had two-jump score of 211 points, while Johnson had a score of 176.8. Macuga, Jones and Sproch did not qualify for the second round and placed, 36th, 37th and 38th, respectively.

The momentum only grew on Saturday, with Annika Belshaw achieving a career-best 14th place with a two-jump score of 218.4 points and Johnson also setting a new personal best in 24th with a score of 180.0.

Jones narrowly missed the cut to advance to second round, placing 31st overall, while Macuga was 36th.

Johnson, of Park City, Utah, said it was a great experience to compete in a World Cup in Lake Placid, especially since her family was there to see her.

“My friends back home in Utah watching, they don’t have to wake up at 3 a.m., so it’s just really nice,” she said.

On Sunday, Johnson and many of the other U.S. women’s ski jumpers signed autographs for fans before the first round of the men’s competitions. Johnson said she’s never experienced anything like that before.

“It was crazy. I was not expecting to see the mixed zone media to have so many people want our signatures,” she said. “Also I was sitting at the top of the bar in the first round yesterday and I could hear people cheering and that’s kind of a first for me. I think I might have even smiled.”

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Mixed team event

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The U.S. mixed ski jumping team posted a respectable fifth place result on Saturday evening. However, Germany claimed the Mixed Team title with combined score of 963.6 from their eight jumps to claim victory ahead of Norway (950.8) and Austria (941.8). Slovenia was fourth with 877.9 points.

The German team included women’s jumpers Anges Reisch and Selina Freitag, and men’s jumpers Philipp Raimund and Andreas Wellinger

The U.S. mixed squad edged out Finland, Poland and Japan.

Up next, some of the younger members of the U.S. ski jumping team — like Frantz and Johnson — will remain in Lake Placid to compete in the FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships this weekend.

Frantz said having competed in the World Cup, he hopes some of the pressure of being at home has fizzled out.

“I hopefully got that out of the way this weekend and I can be a little more relaxed going into next week’s (worlds),” he said.

The non-junior men’s squad will compete in Sapporo, Japan for the next FIS World Cup this coming weekend, while the women will compete in their World Cup in Ljubno, Slovenia.