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Steamboat Magazine

Steamboat Olympians: Jasper Good

01/26/2018 12:25PM ● By Alesha Damerville

Image from U.S. Ski and Snowboard

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS- Jasper Good's passion for Nordic combined skiing began with the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club. Good has represented the U.S. in three Junior World Championships in Romania, Kazakhstan and the Czech Republic. His hard work and dedication has earned him a spot on the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Nordic Combined Team.

Good took a break to answer a few questions with Steamboat Magazine.

S.M. What is the most beautiful spot in Steamboat? 

J.G. The top of the big hill, the large jump of the ski jumps. You can watch everything, it’s beautiful up there.

S.M. What’s your favorite junk food? 

J.G. My mom’s homemade cookies. They’re white chocolate macadamia nut with cranberries.

S.M. Is jumping your favorite part about Steamboat? Is the Howelsen jump your favorite place to ski? 

J.G. It’s so hard to pin down one thing that is my favorite thing to do in steamboat. It literally depends on the season, but I’d say jumping in the winter. I also really love alpine skiing up on the resort. Ski jumping is one of my favorite things to do. Howelsen Hill was literally my childhood home. In the summer, I love mountain biking everywhere.

S.M. What’s your favorite fashion trend in winter sports or in ski jumping?

J.G. I like everyone with their sports sunglasses. It’s a transition back to the retro look a bit. The round sunglasses are pretty sweet, but it’s hard because we all have designated things we wear. I also love it when people have weird and crazy celebrations after runs. Those are pretty awesome.

S.M. Do you prefer small towns or big cities? Why? 

J.G. I definitely prefer small towns, because of all the activities I can do and how quickly I can access them. In steamboat I can ride my bike from my house and the resort is a ten minute ride away. Ease of access to outdoor activities.

S.M. What is your weakness?

J.G. Before this year my weakness was ski jumping. I set out to improve it a lot this year. Another is my overall fitness level, I don’t have as many hours of endurance as some of the older athletes. That’s something I’m always working at. Sometimes when I’m training I think too hard about what I’m doing. I try to do too many things at once instead of focusing on one.

S.M. How does it feel when you come home to Steamboat after traveling the world and suddenly knowing almost everyone in town? 

J.G. It’s pretty awesome. It’s one of those things that’s hard to put into words. The feeling you get when you come home, you’re relieved and happy. It’s a happy place.

S.M. How often to you maintenance your skis and what goes into taking care of them?

J.G. There’s daily maintenance on all the skis. It’s slightly different between jumping and cross country. We have a wax tech who spends the entire day working on our cross country skis. We take a fleet of skis and whittle down which type of wax is the best, based on the flex and grind on ski. We then narrow them down to 2 pairs to choose from on race day. We have to find the magic formula for the right wax to use. 

S.M. What is the dumbest thing you have ever seen someone do in your sport?

J.G. Our skis have a toe that you clip in and a heel clip in that goes into the back of the boot. The dumbest thing I’ve seen is someone forgetting to clip in the heel on the ski and jump. The ski goes flying behind you, it’s a bad thing to happen. There’s so much pressure on the front of the skis and the balance point is in back of the ski, so the ski flips backward. It's similar to holding up a piece of wood out of a window.

S.M. Is there something that you would give up ski jumping for? You could have anything in the world, but you have to give up your sport.

J.G. I don’t think there is anything in my life that would make me give up ski jumping. There’s nothing I have thought about that comes to the front of my mind that would be enough for me to quit jumping.

S.M. What’s the most real advice your coach has given you? 

J.G. A lot of athletes tend to focus and work on strengths. In order to improve you have to focus on weakness. It seems obvious, but it’s actually quite hard to spend time working on weakness. It’s not as fun to make improvements on those at first.

For more information on Olympic qualifiers visit https://usskiandsnowboard.org

Image from usskiandsnowboardorg

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