Ski Jumping Extravaganza’s exciting finish pits one Arthur against another

Tom Skulski/Steamboat Pilot & Today
Arthur Tirone sat in shock at the top of the HS75 ski jump at Howelsen Hill on Friday when it was announced Arthur Keller soared 75.5 meters in the championship round of the 20th annual Jumpin’ and Jammin’ Ski Jumping Extravaganza.
It was a battle of the Arthurs.
“The crowd went wild,” Tirone said of Keller’s jump. “You can get to know the distance pretty well from how loud the crowd yells.”
Keller, a 13 year old Nordic skier with the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, had just flown the furthest distance of the day, but now it was Tirone’s turn in the elimination jump competition.
What started as a field of 56 jumpers slowly whittled its way down to the top-four across five rounds of jumps.
Tirone, 17, had the very last jump of the day and knew his target distance. He said his jump came down to how well he could keep his speed shooting out of the inrun.
Laying flat horizontally over his skis in the air, Tirone eliminates horizontal drag while offering as much surface area as possible to increase vertical drag, keeping him up in the air as long as possible.

Tirone landed 76.5 meters down the ski jump, taking the crown in the Arthur clash.
“This is one of the events I’ve always wanted to win,” Tirone said. “I’ve watched so many of my friends and teammates win it. This is the biggest crowd we get all year and having all these people come watch us throw down, winning that is amazing. It all came together today.”
Hosted by SSWSC, the event offered a prize purse of $2,500 this year. Money was granted to the top-four jumpers, the top female jumper and athletes with the farthest jumps in the rounds of 32, 16 and 8.
Steamboat’s McKenzie Maines, 14, was the female champion of the event. She was the lone girl to reach the Round of 8, and missed the final four by just half a meter with a jump to 71 meters.

Ski Jumping in the summer?
It may sound impossible to someone visiting Steamboat Springs for the first time in the summer months, but ski jumping is not just for the snow with the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club.
Some of the ski jumps at Howelsen Hill have been converted into year-round jumps with a plastic surface in the summer and the typical snowy surface in the winter.
The HS75 jump was the first to be converted in 2006, followed by the HS45 jump in 2012. A beginner jump, the HS8, was completed in 2022 as a means to help beginning SSWSC jumpers start their progression to bigger jumps at any time of year.
Tirone said jumping on the plastic is “relatively similar” to jumping on snow. He said the only real difference is the landing can be shaped differently with snow, generally leading to slightly further jumps in the wintertime.
“Jumping in the summertime completely changed the sport,” said SSWSC Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined Program Director, Todd Wilson, in a 2022 interview. “Imagine somebody like Tiger Woods only playing golf six months of the year. To be able to do it on a year-round basis has kind of become critical and your ability to improve is greatly increased when you can do it on a year-round basis.”












To reach Tom Skulski, call 970-871-4240, email tskulski@SteamboatPilot.com.

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