Ahead of the first World Cup season Ladies-Skijumping.com takes a close look at all national teams. Today we continue this series with Canada and China.
Canada: No comparative values from the summer
Estimating the performance level of the Canadian team is pretty difficult, as they did not participate in any of the international summer competitions this year. So only the results of the last winter can give a clue on their sporting capability: Taylor Henrich consistently made it to the second round and just missed the top ten twice as 11th. At the Oslo World Championships she came 18th. Charlotte Mitchell missed the second round in her first three competitions of the last season, but then became better and better and finally took a 17th rank in Ljubno, her best career result so far. If they manage to jump on the same level as in the last year, both Canadians could see the second round regularly.
China: Learning and gathering experience
The Chinese team debuted on an international level in January 2011 in Schonach. In their first winter not less than five of their jumpers were able to gain points in the Continental Cup. Best Chinese jumper by then was Xueyao Li. In this summer the Chinese did not attend any of the competitions in Europe, but hired the German Jochen Danneberg as head coach of the team. It is undoubted that his broad experience will bring the team a step forward. Nevertheless no one should expect a miracle from these young jumpers. Their main tasks for this winter are learning and gathering more experience. It would be a big success, if some of them will see the second round in some competitions again.