Norge Ski Jumpers Compete Saturday In Olympic Finals

Three local ski jumpers qualified for the U.S. Olympic finals in men's ski jumping after soaring to top 50 spots in Thursday's preliminary round at Pyeongchang, South Korea. Kevin Bickner, 21, of Wauconda; Casey Larson, 19, of Barrington; and Mike Glasder, 28, of Cary all trained at Norge Ski Club, starting ski jumping before the age of 10 years old. Now the trio, in addition to the fourth member on the four-person U.S. ski jumping team, Will Rhoads, will be competing for a chance for gold on Saturday.

It's the first time since 2002, when the qualification stage was first introduced, that all four U.S. men made it to the ski jumping finals, according to the Northwest Herald.

Bickner placed 25th during the Thursday prelim with a score of 114 and a jump of 98 meters. Glasder finished 40th with a score of 94.6 and a jump of 91.5 meters and Larson finished in 46th place with a final score of 90.9 and a jump of 88 meters, according to officials results on the Team USA website.

All three local ski jumpers spoke during a press conference in Pyeongchang following the competition Thursday and praised Norge Ski Club.

"All of the volunteers that are there and the coaches there, especially Scott Smith, are there to help the sport of ski jumping at help athletes get to that Olympics level," Birkner said at the press conference.

In addition, Larson learned on Thursday that he became the 100,000th male to compete in the Olympic games. Larson, who finished 46th in the qualifying round, told reporters he had just learned of the milestone on the day it was announced, according to the Team USA website.

Larson was one of the final athletes to qualify for Team USA and earned his spot based on his results on the world cup and Continental Cup circuits, according to a Team USA press release.

The ski jumping finals will air on NBCSN at 6:35 a.m. on Saturday.

Photo credit: Kevin Bickner of the U.S. soars through the air during his first trial jump at the Ski Flying World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

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