YOUR AD HERE »

This winter is definitely (maybe) Bryan Fletcher’s last hurrah

Bryan Fletcher smiles wide after winning the Fourth of July Nordic combined event in Steamboat Springs.
Joel Reichenberger

He’s not quite ready to stone-cold confirm it, but when Steamboat Springs skier Bryan Fletcher talks about his future in Nordic combined, his language is getting more and more precise.

Last winter, the question about retirement after the 2017-18 season and the 2018 Winter Olympics drew “maybe.” Olympic years are always bracketed by World Championship years, which often serve as a carrot to lure capable athletes into one more year of competition.

Now, however, Fletcher’s language is closing in on a decision.



“I think,” he said, speaking last week at the Team USA Media Summit in Park City, Utah, “I’ll be done after this year.”

If so, that leaves Fletcher one final opportunity to build on his legacy as a skier and to add to his trophy case.



That journey starts Sunday with the Nordic Combined National Championships in Lake Placid, New York.

Fletcher’s a two-time champion in that event and has five podium finishes there. This year, he’ll battle his younger brother Taylor Fletcher, the reigning national champ, as well as a field of U.S. team members. Five of those members are Steamboat Springs skiers, both Fletchers as well as Ben Berend, Jasper Good and Grant Andrews.

Bryan Fletcher’s already logged a stand out career among American Nordic combined athletes.

The most notable highlight came in winning the King’s Cup in Holmenkollen in Oslo, Norway in 2012, his only World Cup win.

That’s one of 34 top 10 finishes he’s logged in international competition, 25 of them on the World Cup circuit.

He helped the United States earn a bronze medal for the four-man relay team at the 2013 World Nordic Ski Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy, becoming one of five American Nordic combined skiers with a World Championship medal.

He’s ranked as high as 15th in the World Cup at the end of a season, in 2015. He’s finished in the top 25 four other times.

“I’ve always been humbled I’ve had it that far,” said Fletcher, who turned 31 years old in June. “It wasn’t always something I necessarily knew was possible.”

It didn’t always seem possible for Fletcher. He was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at age 3, given less than a one-in-five chance of living. Doctors advised against ski jumping, but his mother figured, why not?

Twenty-seven years later, he’s looking ahead at his second Olympics.

Competitively speaking, the first wasn’t his finest moment. He came into those games, In Sochi, Russia in 2014, with back-to-back-to-back top-six finishes in the World Cup, but at the Olympics he was 22nd and 26 in the individual events, and a part of a sixth-place relay team.

He’s proven to have a big-game mentality in other headline events, however. He was fifth in a World Championships race in 2015, skiing with the lead pack through much of the course. He entered the final stretch of a World Championships race last winter with a shot to medal, as well, before a late fall left him to finish 14th.

“I’m tired of competing,” he said. “I’ve been doing it a long time and I’m ready for a new experience, but it’s also motivating to have a light at the end of the tunnel and really put all your eggs in your basket for this year and be the best 24/7 athlete you can be, and enjoying it in the process.

“I’m still trying to be at the top, I know accomplishing what I have, if I walk away tomorrow, I can be happy doing so.”

But will he walk away tomorrow? He’s not quite ready to confirm that without a caveat.

He hopes to spend two or three years in school to become a physician’s assistant, but first has about a year’s worth of work remaining at Utah State.

“So far it’s been all online,” he said. “Next year, I can start attending more classes in person, provided I’m not skiing.”

To reach Joel Reichenberger, call 970-871-4253, email jreichenberger@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @JReich9.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Steamboat and Routt County make the Steamboat Pilot & Today’s work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.