STEAMBOAT SPRINGS- Bryan Fletcher 

S.M. What goes through your mind when you’re flying through the air?

B.F. When it’s a good jump, I’m stoked on how far I’m gonna go and I’m thinking about sticking the landing. On a bad jump, I’m looking at the technical side so I can make the most of it. I think about the most playing with the air and making sure my hands are in the right spot, the skis are flat and creating as much lift as possible while going through air.

S.M. Anywhere you consider to be second home?

B.F. Huber or Park City. I grew up in Steamboat, it’s my home town and what I love the most in the US. We are based in park city and I train and travel out of here, so it’s my home for now. 

S.M. What is the hardest part of your sport or training?

B.F. We are combing both jumping and cross country training, it’s hard to take away from one and not the other. It’s a challenge to build both evenly, one weekend you spend a lot on one and then the next it flips. The training hours are really high. It’s important to keep a life balance. 

S.M. Describe your perfect day.

B.F. A great result or winning a competition. Waking up, feeling great, executing a perfect jump and cross country run. Hopefully it all happens on Olympic day.

S.M. What’s your favorite part about competing?

B.F. A lot of our work is done in summer, when competition comes around it’s fun to go out there and give it a shot, even on a bad season. The work is done, you just go out there and enjoy the process.

S.M. Your sport is considered an individual sport, but how do your teammates effect you and your runs?

B.F. We are technically individual, but we are a small sport in the US. We rely on the team to push our levels and us as individuals. the U.S. Nordic combined has long standing tradition of working together to gain success. It’s something that will continue in our sport, at least in the U.S. We can’t succeeded without having that team around us. The team factor is huge.

S.M. How long did it take you to jump for the first time? Did you ever chicken out? 

B.F. No I was kinda one of those adrenaline junkies as kid, so as soon as I signed up for the sport I was ready for next biggest hill. Todd Wilson down at the club can attest that the first time I jumped the k90 I did it without his permission. I loved to be that kid. I wanted to jump.

S.M. Where is your favorite place to jump? Anyplace besides steamboat? 

B.F. Steamboats large hill is always one of my favorite. I’m a huge fan of huge hills. A favorite is Hollmenkollen, it has a ton of history and it’s a bigger hill. It has the longest running world cup venue in Nordic history and it draws huge crowds.

S.M. How do you rebound from a bad run?

B.F. After a bad jump we have a cross country race, so you can take out frustration on cross country. I ski faster when I’m angry so that’s nice in our sport. Having a bad cross country run is harder to get over. 

S.M. When did you realize you wanted to make a career out of skiing?

B.F. I realized I could travel to Europe and then I realized I could be on the U.S. Ski team. I had the talent to maybe be in the Olympics, a career was an afterthought. I just wanted to see how far I could take it and I kept climbing up the ranks as an athlete and turned it into somewhat of a career.

S.M. What’s your favorite career moment so far?

B.F. I have two. One was winning the bronze medal at the world championship team event in 2013 in Italy. My brother, Taylor and I, were on a team for that together. Second was winning my first world cup Holmenkollen. It was a perfect day.

S.M. As a kid what did you want to be when you grew up?

B.F. I wanted to be a skier. I wanted to be on the U.S. Ski team, so that’s where I set it. I didn’t want to try anything else. 

S.M. Is there one song that you listen to before you jump?

B.F. I listen to a lot of folk, blue grass, hip hop, and rock. It kind of evolved through the years. Anything from Rage Against the Machine, Metallica, to Trampled by Turtles. Different times have different songs I latch onto. In like 2006 it was Macklemore and last year it was The Devil Makes Three and their song, Do Right Wrong. I have Spotify and I just combine all the songs on my offline playlist. 

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