Even after the past World Cup season, several well-known ski jumpers ended their careers, including the DSV eagles Richard Freitag and Severin Freund. A US Olympian could be the next to retire from professional ski jumping.
With the Announcement of the ski jumping squad The USA Nordic Sport Association has come up with a surprise for the upcoming 2022/2023 World Cup season: Kevin Bickner of all people, who holds the distance record in his country and the best US ski jumper in recent years, is missing from the squad, which has a total of seven athletes includes five athletes.
“After a successful Olympic season, our teams consist of a great mix of veterans and rookies from all parts of the country. We are really looking forward to another exciting season,” said sporting director Blake Hughes in the course of the squad nomination. “We have a motivated group of athletes and coaches and we are ready to take the next step forward.”
Ski jumping: Kevin Bickner’s future “unknown”
Hughes also thanked the athletes “who are starting the next chapter in their lives” and recognized their “merit as competitors and role models”.
However, he did not explicitly mention Bickner. It is “not known” what the sporting future of the 25-year-old looks like, wrote the “skijumping.pl” portal. The athlete himself has not yet commented.
Bickner had already taken a break from competition in winter 2020/2021 due to a slump in form and the difficult conditions resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, but made his comeback in the summer of 2021 at the US Championships.
US record with a distance of 244.5 meters
The ski jumper, who was born near Chicago, also started at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. He was 43rd on the normal hill and 39th on the large hill.
In 2017 he surpassed the US record set by Alan Alborn in 2002 at the World Cup ski flying in Vikersund with 244.5 meters.
The USA ski jumping team 2022/2023 at a glance:
Women: Annika Belshaw, Jillian Highfill, Anna Hoffmann, Josie Johnson, Paige Jones, Cara Larson, Samantha Macuga
Men: Erik Belshaw, Decker Dean, Patrick Gasienica, Casey Larson, Andrew Urlaub