Ski jumpers Abigail Strate and Alexandria Loutitt are making their dreams take flight
You wouldn’t think that there are many Canadian athletes who would get recognized walking on the streets of Bled, Slovenia, but Team Canada Olympian Alexandria Loutitt says it has happened to her, thanks to the small European nation’s enthusiasm for ski jumping.
That enthusiasm also translates to great facilities and coaching expertise concentrated in Slovenia. It’s a big reason why Canadian ski jumpers like Loutitt and Abigail Strate, both hailing from Calgary, have made it their home away from home.
Strate says that after four years living and training in Slovenia, she’s still not fluent in Slovenian, but she has elevated from only swear words and funny food items to greetings, days of the week, and the like.
“Kind of enough to make everyone around me laugh,” Strate said with a chuckle.
Both Strate and Loutitt’s journeys in ski jumping started far closer to home. For Strate, it was a sports camp for kids in Calgary where she was exposed to the sport for the first time at the now-closed venue that hosted the 1988 Olympic ski jumping events.
“They use alpine skis to start, and you go on a very small jump—you’re off the ground for a second,” explained Strate.
But a second can probably feel pretty long to a six-year-old, which is how old Strate was at the time. And it’s all been downhill—or perhaps off the hills and into the air—since then.
Loutitt was also six when she first became enthralled with ski jumping. It all began with watching the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, and specifically, the debut of Canadian ski jumper Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes.
“He was really young at the time, and they talked about him a lot on the TV,” said Loutitt. “I was just really infatuated with the sport.”
Then, as fate would have it, 12 years later both Loutitt and Strate would be standing on the Olympic podium alongside Boyd-Clowes and teammate Matthew Soukup after winning bronze in the inaugural Olympic mixed team ski jumping event. This achievement marked Canada’s first ever Olympic medal in ski jumping.
Since then, Loutitt has loaded up on more firsts for Team Canada. In January 2023 she became the first Canadian woman to win a FIS Ski Jumping World Cup event. In February 2023, she became Canada’s first world junior champion in women’s ski jumping. Weeks later, she became Canada’s first-ever ski jumping world champion, winning the women’s large hill event in Planica, Slovenia.
With so much success, Loutitt holds herself to exceptionally high standards, needing to resist calling last season an “underperformance” when she finished third overall in the World Cup standings—another first for a Canadian woman. The 20-year-old says she is beginning to realize that being so hard on herself isn’t helpful.
“This year, I’m letting myself be a bit more vulnerable, not feeling disappointed when I make small errors, because it’s harder to get back up when you’re beating yourself up.”
Loutitt has been working on relieving that pressure by framing flying through the air as a totally normal part of her day, as unbelievable as that may sound to many of us.
“I have a saying with my coach that’s a little bit of a joke, but we say: ‘We’re just walking the dog!’ You know, you’re really relaxed. It’s like you have the same vibe as you were taking the dog out for a walk,” Louttitt explained.
Strate agrees that a significant ingredient to success in ski jumping is one’s mental game.
“It’s a common saying that jumping is 80% mental, 20% physical,” she said. “There isn’t much we can do physically other than be fit in general, be light, be strong with our legs. Most of all, you have to be able to use your head while you’re out there.”
Last season, Strate definitely experienced what it’s like to achieve that flow state, claiming three straight FIS World Cup podiums in a row, stepping onto the podium in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Oberstdorf, and Villach.
“I was in the zone. It was the coolest thing ever,” Strate said. “I want nothing more than to have that feeling at the start of the season and the whole way through.
“I’m so happy that I had that little streak, because it makes me motivated to want to go get that in the next few years, especially with the Olympics coming up.”
Loutitt and Strate are both headed into this season with high hopes. For Loutitt, this season is the first that she’s starting out healthy and not rehabbing any lingering issues, which has allowed her to make some big steps in training. She’s most excited to show off some of the work she did in a wind tunnel over the summer—a specialized facility that allows for training the flight portion of a jump.
Flight has also been a training focus for Strate. Landings have been given attention by the entire team, as that is an area that the Canadians frequently miss out on some points in the scoring.
That’s one of the things that Loutitt finds herself explaining to people most often about her sport—that it’s not just a matter of jumping far. Yes, distance counts, but there are also five judges who evaluate each jump for style and award points on a scale of 0-20, looking at things like body position in the air and while landing. External conditions like headwinds or tailwinds can also impact results.
Loutitt also has to chuckle when people ask her how many flips she can do (confusing ski jumping with aerials).
“Literally, none.”
Team Canada will be in action for the first stop on the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup circuit in Lillehammer, Norway taking place November 21-23. Check out Team Canada’s Nordic sports preview for more events and athletes to look out for.
