The World Cup continues for Nordic athletes who recently traveled to Lahti, Finland for more ski jumping and Nordic combined competition. 

Kicking off the weekend with a team ski jumping event, Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club alumni Decker Dean and Erik Belshaw teamed up to compete for the U.S. on Saturday, March 25. 

Belshaw’s 114-meter leap led to the nation’s top score of 111.5, but was not enough to help the U.S. advance to a second round of jumps. The team came in ninth overall. 

The following day was an individual event off the HS130 ski jump. Belshaw was once again the top American with a 118.5-meter jump that placed him in 26th. He earned judges scores good enough for the top-20 but took a 19.1 point deduction for gate and wind compensation. 

Dean’s 111.5 meter jump helped put him in the top-30 at 29th overall. 

In Nordic combined, Niklas Malacinski was back in action on Friday, March 24, starting things with a team sprint event where he and his partner, Erik Lynch, were unable to place in the top-13 on the ski jumping hill to advance to the cross country portion of the competition. 

Going back to individual competition on Saturday, Malacinski jumped to 34th with a 113.5-meter jump, and raced up one spot to take 33rd. He followed that the next day with a jump to 24th but fell back to 26th overall in the cross country race to close out the World Cup weekend.