Austria, Germany and Slovenia take Gold in Lake Placid

Austrian men's team, Germany's women's team and Slovenia's mixed team celebrated victories on the last two days of ski jumping at the Junior World Ski Championships in Lake Placid, USA.

Team events completed the fascinating rivalry at the MacKenzie Intervale Ski Jumping Complex. Austria's Stephan Embacher bagged three medals including two Golds. He defended his title and led the men's team to a convincing victory on Friday. The local heroes could celebrate, too.

Simon Steinberger, Lukas Haagen, Nikolaus Humml and Embacher collected 932.5 points to seal the win in the men's team competition with an advantage of 22.4 points over Slovenia (Urban Simnic, Nik Bergant Smerajc, Enej Faletic, Ziga Jancar).

Sensationally, Bronze went to the local heroes as Jason Colby, Henry Loher, Bryce Kloc and Tate Frantz achieved the first-ever team medal for the USA. They fought until the very last jump for a medal with Germany and Poland. Coming into the last group, the USA's athletes were in fifth place, but Frantz's 98-meter attempt moved them to the podium.

"This feels really, really good. We definitely knew it was possible as a team, but we didn't want to talk about it and jinx anything. After the first round, it was very close. We were quite a bit back, though, but within striking distance, and I think that's the best position to be in. No stress, nothing to lose, just to jump our hearts out," excited Frantz said. 

The women's competition abounded in many emotions and excitement as the three top teams finished within 5 points. 

Germany (Lia Boehme, Anna-Fay Scharfenberger, Julina Kreibich, Kim Amy Duschek) defeated Slovenia (Lucija Jurgec, Tinkara Komar, Tina Erzar, Taja Bodlaj) by 2 points (exactly one meter). Japan (Kikka Sakamoto, Riko Iwasaki, Yu Saito, Yuzuki Sato) came in third only 4.6 points behind the winners. 

"It means so much. We were so good, and now we're so happy. We didn't expect it at all... I have no words," Scharfenberger said with tears of joy in her eyes. 

The mixed team competition took place already on Saturday, not on Sunday as it was initially planned. The organizers decided to reschedule the event to due the bad weather forecast. 

Slovenia with four medalists on the team took a clear victory. Taja Bodlaj, Ziga Jancar, Tina Erzar and Urban Simnic showed a very consistent performance, and won half of the groups on the road to Gold.

The local heroes followed the flow to clinch another historical medal. Sandra Sproch, Jason Colby, Josie Johnson and Tate Frantz made eight good jumps to reach Silver ahead of Austria (Sara Pokorny, Stephan Embacher, Meghann Wadsak, Simon Steinberger).

"It feels amazing. I would've been happy even with the third place, and the second is even more grateful. This is a new history for America. I'm super happy for all of us," said Sproch. 

Embacher emerged as the most successful athlete of the Junior Worlds in Lake Placid with two Gold medals and one Bronze. Steinberger (AUT), Frantz (USA) and Bodlaj (SLO) also bagged three medals in all three events.