Spectators wave Polish flags at the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup on Sunday, Feb. 12 at the Olympic Jumping Complex in Lake Placid. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

LAKE PLACID — If you just listened to the crowd at the men’s ski jumping World Cup this past weekend, you probably would have thought that Dawid Kubacki was the hometown hero.

In fact, the Polish jumper had never even been to Lake Placid before the FIS World Cup, but every time he took flight, the crowd of around 7,000 people roared until he landed.

Most of those attendees were Polish-Americans and they had traveled from places like Connecticut, Chicago and even as far as Las Vegas to watch the first FIS ski jumping World Cup in Lake Placid since 1990. Competition was held on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 11 and 12.

In Poland, ski jumping is one of the most popular sports, and it showed at the Olympic Jumping Complex in Lake Placid. Spectators could be seen wearing Polish attire while waving their flags proudly and screaming for Kubacki’s autograph.

“I heard that a lot of Polish people — Polish society — in the U.S. (saying) they are gathering and they will be here. I didn’t imagine that it would be this much,” Kubacki said. “I know it from the other hills in Europe or even in Japan, the Polish fans are really great. They came on every hill, and basically wherever we go, we have Polish fans on the side.”

Poland’s Dawid Kubacki soars through the air during the Sunday, Feb. 12 FIS Ski Jumping World Cup individual competition at the Olympic Jumping Complex in Lake Placid. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

Kubacki, a two-time Olympic bronze medalist and four-time World Championship medalist, placed fifth and seventh in the two individual competitions — both were the top finish by a Polish athlete. His best performance came when he and Piotr Zyla won gold in the team event on Saturday.

“That was really nice because that was the first competition of this kind in the winter World Cup,” Kubacki said. “That was our goal to fight for the win and we made it. We are very happy about this. Of course, I was hoping for a better result in the individual competitions but I made too much mistakes, unfortunately.”

Poland won the team event with 800.8 points. Team Austria, which consisted of Daniel Tschofeni and Stefan Kraft, took second place with 787.6, while the Japanese team of Ryoyu Kobayashi and Naoki Nakamura finished in third with 776.7. The U.S. team of Decker Dean and Casey Larson finished in 11th place out of 13 teams with 382.2 points.

After Poland claimed gold, the crowd sang its national anthem. “This was amazing to sing the national anthem with them,” Kubacki said.

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Norway’s Halvor Egner Granerud soars through the air during the Sunday, Feb. 12 FIS Ski Jumping World Cup individual competition at the Olympic Jumping Complex in Lake Placid. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

Individual competitions

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In the first individual competition of the ski jumping World Cup, Olympic gold and silver medalist Andreas Wellinger of Germany soared to first place with a total score of 264.5 points on Saturday.

Japan’s Kobayashi, a 2022 Olympic gold medalist, took second place with 256 points and Austria’s Tschofrenig was third with 255.4 points. Timi Zajc of Slovenia finished just off the podium in fourth place with 254.6 points.

Norway’s Halvor Egner Granerud took home gold in Sunday’s individual competition with a two-jump total of 287.6 points (125 and 134 meters).

Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi flies down the HS128 Hill at the Olympic Jumping Complex in Lake Placid during the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup in Lake Placid on Sunday, Feb. 12. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

“It was a really good day for me,” Granerud said. “Yesterday I was struggling a little bit. Today I was a lot better. The last jump especially was super-fun.”

Wellinger, of Germany, took second place with 276.1 points, with Austria’s Kraft in third with 275.3.

Granerud’s win marked his 23rd World Cup victory altogether and his 10th individual World Cup victory of the season. He currently leads the World Cup circuit with 1,652 points ahead of Kubacki (1,359 points).

Much like Kubacki, it was Granerud’s first time in Lake Placid. The 26-year-old said he spent part of his time in this village trying biathlon at Mount Van Hoevenberg.

“It’s been really cool to see all of the people coming out, and you can’t get much better weather,” Granerud said. “I think it was a really good show. I think everyone in USA Nordic can be really proud of the competition that was held here.”

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Team USA

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Lake Placid native Tate Frantz, 17, made his ski jumping World Cup debut at the event.

“It’s been pretty awesome to get my chance on the biggest stage in the world, and to have all the fans down below with the support of everyone is pretty awesome to have,” Frantz said.

In the first competition on Saturday, he jumped 108.1 meters for 93.1 ski jump points, and on Sunday he jumped 101 meters for 82.1 points. While he didn’t qualify for the competition round on either day, he said he was satisfied with how the weekend went.

“I think I’m capable of having better jumps,” Frantz said. “I’m just a tad bit disappointed on that side, but I just want to make sure that I don’t get brought down by the fact that you can just make micro-adjustments.”

Frantz was the youngest competitor at the event. He said that he wanted to use this World Cup as a learning experience to grow his career.

“There are guys here that have been on the World Cup longer than I have been alive,” Frantz said. “I definitely had that disadvantage, but it’s been good to get to know everyone.”

Larson, of Park City, Utah, was the top American jumper, placing 35th with 102.6 points and 34th with 103.4 points on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Larson was the lone U.S. ski jumper to qualify for the competition round on both days.

Dean, of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, finished Saturday’s individual competition in 44th place with 91.4 points. Andrew Urlaub of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, was 41st on Saturday with 98.2 points while Erik Belshaw of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, was 47th with 90.3 points.