ENGELBERG, Switzerland — Canada's Alexandria Loutitt claimed World Cup silver in women's ski jumping on Friday.
The Calgary native had a total score of 290.2 in the large hill competition.
France's Josephine Pagnier (293.0) earned gold, while Slovenia's Ema Klinec (289.4) took bronze.
Loutitt set a new hill record of 139 metres on her second jump to moved up from fourth to second place.
“I’m pretty happy even though I didn’t win,” said Loutitt, who was also second best in Thursday’s qualifying round to determine the top-40 athletes on Friday. “My goal was not to be too early today. I was about three metres late (in my first jump) but I was able to find the middle ground and perfectly hit the takeoff (on my second jump) and it felt very good.”
It was the third World Cup medal of the season for Loutitt.
The 19-year-old grabbed silver in the large hill event and a bronze in the normal hill earlier this month in Lillehammer, Norway.
“This is the first time that I’ve been able to fully prepare for a World Cup season and first with these coaches for a full World Cup year,” added Loutitt, who had knee surgery prior to breaking her foot last summer in training at the team’s home base in Planica, Slovenia.
“After surgery, I was jumping, training and preparing, but I was really in recovery mode and then I broke my foot so I really didn’t have a full season.”
Loutitt won gold in large hill at last season's world championship in Planica and was a bronze medallist in the mixed team event at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
The women’s large hill competition will make its Olympic debut at the 2026 Games in Milano/Cortina.
The World Cup continues on Saturday in Engelberg.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 15, 2023.
The Canadian Press
