Kevin Bickner and Anna Hoffmann win US Olympic Trials

The US Olympic Team Trials for the upcoming Winter Games in Beijing were held on Saturday in Lake Placid, where Kevin Bickner and Anna Hoffmann could take the top spots in the Ski Jumping competitions. Officially the US Olympic team will be named in late January.

Kevin Bickner was able to take the win in this normal hill competition with jumps of 96 m and 96.5 m and a total of 257.5 points. The second place went to Decker Dean with 92.5 m and 95 m and 244.0 points, Casey Larson came in third with 91 m and 91.5 m and 229.0 points.

“There is a lot of work that went into this. Over the past year, I’ve been coming back from some time off and get back to where I was a couple years ago. I’m super excited to be going back to the Olympics. It has been a little bit more difficult this time around and I knew this was going to be an important event to win to secure that spot", said the 25-year-old, who has already been competing in the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang.

After an extremely close women's competition, Anna Hoffmann could celebrate her win with 85.5 m and 90.5 m and 214.5 points. Only 0.5 points behind the winner, Logan Sankey finished second with two jumps of 88 m (214.0 points). Annika Belshaw was third with 81 m and 88.5 m and 200.5 points.

“It has been a long road to get here. I’ve been ski jumping for nineteen years and it is really exciting to win the Olympic Team Trials. It has been a great time, and it is just really exciting to have such great teammates who cheer each other on and have a good time together", said Anna Hoffmann.