Loomis 15th; Four Top 25 In Nordic Combined
In the Nordic Combined Normal Hill/10km competition on Wednesday, Feb. 9, the U.S. men came out and pushed, landing two men into the top 20 and all four men in the top 25.
The charge was led by Park City's Ben Loomis, who finished 41st in this event back at the 2018 Games. On Wednesday he made a massive improvement, finishing 15th overall after posting a solid jump in 17th and skating hard in the cross country section.
“I’m really happy with finishing 15th overall today," said Loomis. "I wasn’t totally satisfied with my jumping, but I was able to make up for that in the race. Overall, it was a great day. I’m definitely feeling more confident going into the next events.”
Jared Shumate, who sat in 24th after the jump, also pushed hard in the cross country portion to move up in the rankings, finishing 19th overall in his Olympic Games debut.
“My jumping wasn’t quite as good as I would have hoped for today, but I felt that I had a pretty solid race," commented Shumate. "I had a goal set to get top 20 in the Olympics at the start of this season, and I’m happy to have accomplished that. Starting off the games with a 19th overall finish is pretty satisfying.”
Team veteran, Taylor Fletcher, improved on his PyeongChang Games finish as well, finishing 24th overall. Fletcher, who is known for his speed on the track, used the 10km to jump 10 spots in the ranks after a disappointing jump. Stephen Schumann finished 25th overall.
The nordic combined men have another opportunity to show their stuff in the Individual Large Hill/10km event on Tuesday, Feb. 15th. In the meantime, the team will get back to training at the Nordic Center in Zhangjiakou, China.
