{"id":804991,"date":"2020-03-07T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-07T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=380081"},"modified":"2020-03-07T10:30:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-07T17:30:00","slug":"team-summit-star-caps-statement-freeski-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/team-summit-star-caps-statement-freeski-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Summit star caps statement freeski season"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Team Summit freeskier, Breckenridge resident and Pennsylvania native Jenna Riccomini, right, celebrates one of her three second-place finishes at last month’s Aspen Snowmass Freeskiing Open.<\/strong>
Courtesy Team Summit<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 Jenna Riccomini thought she was in trouble.<\/p>\n

Back at the Lausanne 2020 Youth Winter Olympic Games in January, U.S. team officials approached Riccomini and told her they needed to talk. After she was ushered to a different location and a video camera appeared, the 15-year-old native of State College, Pennsylvania, and Team Summit freestyle skier knew something else was up. Her coaches had nominated her to be the United States\u2019 flag-bearer at the closing ceremonies of the Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympics, an event where Riccomini \u2014 several years younger than the vast majority of the competitors at the games \u2014 made a statement that she, as much as any young American female, is set to be a major part of freeskiing\u2019s future, as her coach Dean Spirito said Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told me I was nominated because \u2018You\u2019re always so happy, keeping the stoke real,\u2019\u201d Riccomini said. \u201cThey said, \u2018We want someone like that to represent the U.S. team in general.\u2019 But I didn\u2019t realize how big of a deal it was, the closing ceremony. They\u2019re handing me this huge flag, \u2018Don\u2019t mess up!\u2019 Oh dang, this is a big deal. That was the big icing on the cake for that trip because I don\u2019t only get to represent the freestyle team, I represent all of the athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

January\u2019s Youth Olympics, where Riccomini\u2019s best finish was eighth in slopestyle, was just one of several major events this winter where Riccomini opened eyes as a supremely talented and versatile young freeskier. When Team Summit\u2019s International Ski Federation coach Spirito reflects on the magical season the Breckenridge resident Riccomini has had, he points to her growth all-around as an athlete enabling her to shine from the Youth Olympics to the Aspen Open to the U.S. Revolution Tour \u2014 the step right below the World Cup circuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot just in terms of her technical approach to the sport, but also emotionally and mentally, she\u2019s a lot stronger in that capacity, and she\u2019s a lot more equipped to handle the stress that comes with an intense competition schedule,\u201d Spirito said. \u201cBetween traveling all over the world, bouncing from one time zone to another, spending a lot of time in cars and on planes, being asked to then perform at a really high level adds to the stress.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Riccomini\u2019s stoked-out approach to her young career has kept that stress at bay. This was Spirito\u2019s sixth season coaching Riccomini, an athlete he described as a \u201cnatural born risk taker\u201d who embodies Team Summit\u2019s philosophy of creating skiers who can ski anything.<\/p>\n

Earlier this season, Riccomini won second place at the highly competitive Mammoth Mountain Rev Tour big air, where her ability to land an unnatural 720-degree rotation to her rightside proved she can rise to the occasion in clutch moments.<\/p>\n

Later in the season, at last month\u2019s coveted Aspen Snowmass Freeskiing Open at the X Games superpipe at Buttermilk Ski Area, Riccomini earned strong second-place finishes on the slopestyle and big air courses before she had her \u201cicing on the cake,\u201d in the X Games pipe. Riccomini earned second on the strength of a run that included a final-run alley-oop 540 she was proud of.<\/p>\n

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