A ski jumper on the 90-meter hill at the Olympic Ski Jumping Complex. (Photo: Lake Placid News /Lou Reuter)
Sophomore Ski Jumper and Nordic Combined Athlete Jack Kroll had the opportunity to forerun for both the FISU World University Games and the Lake Placid Ski Jumping World Cup. Jack’s forerunner job was jumping before all the competitors to help officials decide where to put the start gate. He helped determine how much speed was needed to jump specific distances, and how much was too much speed to prevent athletes from overjumping and getting injured.
Jack foreran all 10 days of the FISU games, a total of 14 jumps. He foreran a mixture of official training and competitions. “I had fun, and being around many international athletes was cool,” Kroll said.
Jack also jumped at the World Cup. He foreran for four different competitions from February 10th to the 12th. Because of the level of the athletes, they were started at a lower start bar, which means they have less speed, making it harder to jump as far as possible. “It was a good experience to be around a higher level of competition and to see what the future holds,” Kroll said. Jack also got to meet and get his bib signed by athletes he had been watching and looked up to for years.
