Canadian ski jumper Loutitt wins World Cup bronze in Slovenia

LJUBNO, Slovenia — Canada's Alexandria Loutitt captured World Cup bronze in women's ski jumping on Saturday for her sixth podium finish of the season.

The 20-year-old from Calgary posted a two-jump total of 258.9 points in the normal hill competition to finish behind gold medallist Eva Pinkelnig of Austria and silver medallist Nika Prevc of Slovenia.

Despite reaching the podium, Loutitt felt she could have done better.

“This is one of my favourite hills and has been since the first day I was here, but I wasn’t really happy with my jumps to be honest,” Loutitt said. “I am happy though to know I can be on the podium even without good jumps.”

Loutitt posted jumps of 89 and 88.5 metres.

“The takeoffs were good, but my flying wasn’t working so my style was suffering and it just didn’t come together,” she said.

Pinkelnig, who moved up to third in the overall World Cup standings, won by scoring 269.3 points with jumps of 91.0 and 90.5 metres.

Prevc, the overall World Cup leader, had 262.5 points.

Fellow Canadian Abigail Strate, also of Calgary, finished in seventh place with 249.9 points.

Loutitt and Strate placed second in a World Cup super team ski-jumping event last week in Japan, earning Canada its first-ever medal in the competition.

“Abi and I both believed we could do this," Loutitt said. "I think people forget how young we are, but we are both Olympic medallists, and I’m a World Champion, so we both know how to handle the pressure of competing and putting out those consistent results."

The World Cup event in Slovenia continues Sunday with another normal hill competition.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27, 2024.