Calgary’s Strate picks up second medal of World Cup ski jumping season

WISŁA — Calgary’s Abigail Strate continued her impressive start to the ski jumping World Cup season with a silver medal in a large hill event on Thursday,

Strate had the best jump of the final round to finish with a total of 240.9 points, 5.1 back of gold medallist Anna Odine Stroem of Norway.

“I’m so, so happy with that. I jumped for the soul today,” Strate said. “I was struggling a bit in Sweden (last week) and a bit in training, but I pulled it off when it counted.

“That second jump is the one I’ve been waiting for all season. That proves what I can do.”

Japan’s Nozomi Maruyama was third at 236.9.

After a ninth-place finish in the women’s large hill last week in Falun, Sweden, Strate credited her coaches for a session on cross-country skis on a day off earlier this week to work on her in-run speed.

“I think my mind was starting to beat me up a bit in Falun. I was trying to keep myself calm because there can be a lot of noise (in an athlete’s) mind,” Strate said. “I felt the good jumps weren’t far away. I just had to click the right buttons.”

Strate has two silver medals so far this season after finishing second in the season-opening large hill event Nov. 22 in Lillehammer, Norway.

The 24-year-old Strate has seven career World Cup medals, three silver and four bronze.

The women’s large hill competition will make its Olympic debut at the 2026 Games in Milan and Cortina, Italy.

Strate is Canada’s main Olympic hopeful in ski jumping after 2023 world and world junior women’s champion Alex Loutitt suffered a season-ending knee injury in September at a Summer Grand Prix event at the Olympic venue in Predazzo, Italy.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 4, 2025.