Steamboat Springs ski jumper and Winter Sports Club alum Jason Colby secured his first podium and win in an International Ski and Snowboard Federation Grand Prix event in Rasnov, Romania over the weekend.
In the process, he became the first American male to win a Grand Prix ski-jumping event.
“It’s definitely a stepping stone,” Colby said. “I had some good training results leading up, and everything came together.”
The competition was split between Saturday and Sunday. Japanese jumper Naoki Nakamura was victorious in Saturday’s jumps and secured the overall Grand Prix title. One competition remains in the Grand Prix season.
In Saturday’s event, Colby jumped 89 and 90.5 meters to score 215.2 points and land in second place. He was 18.9 points behind Nakamura and one-half point ahead of Norway’s Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal.
Colby saved his best for Sunday, jumping 91 and 93.5 meters — the farthest jump of the day. His efforts secured the highest score of the weekend — 244.9 points. He beat Poland’s Pawel Wasek and Kazakhstan’s Danil Vassilyev by 10.8 and 11.4 points, respectively.
“It’s a nice result, but not an unexpected one,” said Colby. “Not every athlete shows up to Grand Prix events. So with the competition that attended, I feel good about my placement.”
Colby did not compete in the two opening competitions of the Grand Prix season. The first was in Wisla, Poland, while the second was in Courcheval, France.
The final competition of the Grand Prix season is in Klingenthal, Germany Oct. 24-25.
The World Cup season kicks off Nov. 20-22 in Lillehammer, Norway, and will run through March.
Colby has the Four Hills Tournament circled on his calendar, as his family is expected to come out and support him. It’s known as the German-Austrian Ski Jumping week. Jumpers compete across four ski jumps and the competitor who achieves the highest overall score across the four competitions is crowned champion. The jumps are located in Oberstdorf and Garmisch–Partenkirchen, Germany; and Innsbruck and Bischofshofen, Austria.
“It should be a good season,” said Colby. “I want to thank my coaches at the Winter Sports Club. They are the reason I am where I am today.”