The Flying Eagles Ski Club invites you to join them for their 2017 Flying Eagles Invitiational Tournament on January 8, 2017. Check here for the invitation and registration materials.

The ski jumpers in the Continental Cup went to the USA this week for two competitions in Iron Mountain, Michigan. After the training could not take place on Friday due to the weather conditions, the first competition on Saturday was carried out as planned.

And the first event on the Pine Mountain brought a great success for the hosts. With jumps on 124.5 m and 132.5 m and 211.1 points, Michael Glasder celebrated his first ever win in the Continental Cup in front of his home crowd. So far an eleventh place in Bischofshofen late January was the best result for the 26-year-old.  

Bartlomiej Klusek of Poland, with 118 m 13th after the first round, took the second place with a strong jump on 130 m in the final round and a total of 200.7 points. 

Slovenia's Ernest Prislic posted jumps on 130 m and 122 m, that earned him a total of 200.3 points and the third place, his first podium result in this competition series. 

The two Norwegians Robert Johansson and Rune Velta, 17th and 16th after the first jump, improved their results significantly in the final round. Robert Johansson, who had a jump on 243.5 m in Vikersund last weekend, moved up from 17th to fourth. World Champion Rune Velta showed the longest jump of the day with 137.5 m in the second round and finished fifth overall. 

William Rhoads, the leader after the first round, came in sixth and provided another top result for the US American team. Behind Slovenia's Miran Zupancic (7th), Paul Winter of Germany was eighth and equalled his best result in the COC, achieved last March. 

Fredrik Bjerkeengen and Joacim Oedegaard Bjoereng of Norway experienced some ups and downs. While Bjerkeengen, fourth after the first half of the competition, lost some ground in the final and finished ninth, his teammate moved up from 21st to tenth. 

Austria's Clemens Aigner now took the lead in the overall ranking with 597 points, Karl Geiger (574 points) and Tom Hilde (558 points) follow in second and third.

Ben Loomis, the 17-year-old Flying Eagle poised for the Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway next week, took first place in a pre-Olympic meet this week in Trondheim.

The former Memorial High School student won the Nordic Combined Youth 2 group by a whopping 43 seconds with a Norwegian athlete second and one from Estonia third among 16 entries.

 Loomis won the jumping portion by a solid margin and had the second-best cross country time to establish himself as a top contender for an Olympic medal.