Pretorius grapples with sudden leap into the elite
Teenager from Calgary one of three women who will carry Canadian hopes to Sochi
The passionate female ski jumpers from Canada who shamed the IOC and even went to court to fight for inclusion in the Winter Olympics have mostly moved on to other pursuits.
Zoya Lynch, Katie Willis and Nata DeLeeuw were all top- 15 in the world in 2008- 09. But frustrated by the failure to get the underfunded sport into the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, they had basically hung up their long, wide planks by the time the IOC finally agreed in April, 2011, to add women’s ski jumping to the schedule for the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia.
So now, it will be up to Atsuko Tanaka, who returned to the Canadian national team this winter after jumping for Japan for two years, and a couple of fresh- faced 17- year- olds from Calgary to carry Canadian hopes 11 months from now.
The veteran Tanaka, 21, won the Normal Hill competition at the Aviva national championships in Whistler’s Callaghan Valley on Friday with a twojump score of 240.5. Alexandra Pretorius, who had the day’s longest jump at 104.5 metres, was second with 235.5 points and Taylor Heinrich a distant third at 194.0.
Heinrich was an encouraging fifth at the inaugural Youth Olympic Winter Games in Austria in 2012. But it is Pretorius who might have the biggest upside.
With just two low- level FIS competition jumps under her belt, the then 16- year- old shocked both herself and the women’s ski jumping community last August when she won a Grand Prix on the plastic at Courcheval, France, with jumps of 92.5 and 96.5 metres for 221.9 points.
Austrians Daniela Iraschko, a former world champion, and Jacqueline Seifriedsberger were second and third, respectively. It was the first win in a major ski jumping competition by a Canadian in 29 years.
“It was an amazing experience,” Pretorius recounted this week in an interview from Whistler. “I didn’t know what happened. People were congratulating me and I’m going ‘ OK.’ I didn’t realize how great it was. It was pretty cool.”
She then had a couple of thirdplace finishes at another Grand Prix in Kazakhstan in September, but struggled with consistency on the World Cup circuit.
“She started thinking too much,” says Brent Morrice, head of Ski Jumping Canada. “She knew after that ( result in France) that she could win and it got to her a little bit. There’s a lot of pressure and she’s a very young girl, only turning 17 in January. The coaches kind of predicted that.
“We’re hoping that another year of maturity and getting her to a lot of events is going to make a big difference.”
Pretorius was 15th and 31st at a pair of World Cups in Sochi in December and 10th and 15th at World Cups in Hinterzarten, Germany, in mid- January. But her best result in four World Cups in Japan was a 25th and she was just 34th at world championships in Val di Femme, Italy, in February, although she did close the World Cup season with a 14th in Oslo two weeks ago.
“It was tough,” said Pretorius, who is Grade 11 at the Calgary Sport School. “Almost everywhere I went was a new hill and a new experience for me. I had some really good results and some not- so- good results, but overall I was happy with my performances.”
Pretorius finished 26th in the World Cup standings, seven spots behind Tanaka. Heinrich was 35th.
The World Cup title was won by Sara Takanashi of Japan, with Sarah Hendrickson of the United States second.
Pretorius and her twin brother, Jean Charl, started jumping in Calgary at age eight, following older brother, Channon, who has since quit to attend university.
“I was really nervous at first, but after a while it grows on you,” said Alexandra. She says her goal is to be a medal contender in Sochi, but she’s also committed to staying through the 2018 Olympics.
Meantime, Morrice goes before the Own the Podium directors April 12 hoping to get at least the $ 100,000 Ski Jumping Canada got last season. It was the smallest amount given to any winter sport organization in Canada.
“We hit all our benchmarks, pretty much did what we thought we were going to do,” said Morrice in making the case that OTP should continue to fund the program.
Some of the OTP funding will hopefully go toward a pre- season training camp in November on the seldom- used jumps in the Callaghan. Morrice said he’s talking with Whistler Olympic Park now and is “pretty optimistic” that a camp will happen.
“We’re really pushing for it and OTP is on side with that. These jumps are the closest thing to Sochi that we can get.”