Canada’s Strate adjusts to new normal on ski jumping team after strong season start

CALGARY — Abigail Strate feels dialled in, but also missing something as the Canadian ski jumper prepares for the World Cup season and Olympic Games.

The best summer Grand Prix season of her career — jumpers land on plastic-coated turf instead of snow — boosted the 24-year-old Calgarian’s confidence with February’s 2026 Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina, Italy, on the horizon.

Strate placed in the top three in five Grand Prix events in August and September, including a victory at the Olympic venue in Predazzo, Italy, and another in Courcheval, France.

While not all of the world’s top ski jumpers compete in Grand Prix events, they were all in Predazzo to get reps at the Olympic venue.

“I’m on the right track,” Strate stated Thursday in Calgary. “I’m going to keep on the right track and keep doing what I’m doing.”

Strate returns to Europe on Sunday to the Canadian ski jumping team’s training base in Slovenia. She finds herself in unfamiliar territory, however, without teammate Alex Loutitt.

Loutitt, the 2023 world and world junior women’s champion, suffered a season-ending knee injury at Predazzo the day after Strate was first and Loutitt fourth in normal hill.

Loutitt fell upon landing during large hill qualification. Even though Strate qualified second, coaches pulled the Canadian women from large hill so the team could process what happened.

Strate says she and teammates Nicole Maurer and Natalie Eilers must adapt to a new normal when they reconvene in Slovenia.

“It’s a hit losing Ali,” Strate said. “When you’re on such a small team, we rely on each other so much. Everyone’s still digesting it.”

Since helping Canada win an Olympic bronze medal in 2022 in the mixed team event, Strate and Loutitt have made the country a women’s ski jumping contender with a combined 18 World Cup medals between them.

Each is a measuring stick for the other in training and competition. Strate and Loutitt tied for fifth in this year’s world championship normal hill with identical points.

Earlier this year, Loutitt described their relationship as “sisters” who are competitive with each other, but understand they need each other for success.

“I’m at the top of the hill with Ali every time I compete. We’re usually in the same area on the start list, so we’re always high-fiving each other,” Strate said.

“I guess I have to hold down the fort. It’s not going to change anything that I do in my training. Things have been working for me, so I’m going to keep doing things that work. Now I’m even more ‘OK, I have to do this for Canada.’ I want to make everybody proud. I don’t want that to be more pressure. I just want it to be more motivational.”

Hitting her head in a couple crashes early last season rattled Strate. Working with the team’s mental coach restored her confidence in time for the world championship.

“I confronted that there was a problem there, then started overcoming it. I became brave again, and I think you have to be really brave to do this sport,” she said.

Strate says a summer deep dive into all areas of training, on and off the ramp, also seemed to pay off to start this season.

“I kind of just tried to level everything up a little bit,” she said. “I was more involved with the nutritionist, mental coaching, making sure every day I show up to training in the best mental and physical shape I can be in.

Strate will compete in the last Grand Prix in Germany on Oct. 25 before kicking off the World Cup season Nov. 20-23 in Lillehammer, Norway.

“It’s new not having Ali here, it’s new for me maybe having medal potential at a Games. I’ve never had that before,” Strate said. “I’m just going to try to enjoy ski jumping. I love it right now so I’m going to keep doing it.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 9, 2025.