Parkite Jared Shumate Shines in Finland

Front to back, Jared Shumate, Jasper Good and Niklas Malacinski. Photo: USA Nordic Team

When not competing around the world or studying at the University of Utah, Shumate finds time to work at the Utah Olympic Park. It’s the same venue where he got his first taste of fast flying and cross country skiing, not unlike countless other locals, in the popular after school Get Out and Play program facilitated by the Youth Sports Alliance.

Twenty-one-year-old Schumate’s extensive previous international showings include an 8th place finish in the Team Competition World Cup in Obersdorf, Germany last year and a tenth place in Seefeld, Austria in the 2019 World Ski Championships.

This weekend’s event in Finland featured a Men’s Gundersen Normal Hill HS 100/10.0 KM, where Shumate gained 110.3 jump points and a ski race finish clock-in of 26:47.3, which amounted to a time differential of 18.7 seconds off the first place Norwegian winner. The Continental Cup was contested by Nordic Combined athletes representing 16 other nations.

USA Nordic athletes showed up all over the final scorecard. Fourth place honors went to Jasper Good, who came in with a combined time two seconds behind his teammate, and 18-year-old Niklas Malacinski finished eighth.

December 2020 saw the hard-lobbied-for, historic first Women’s World Cup Nordic Combined competition with the win by prolific competitor, USA Nordic’s Tara Gerraghty-Moats.

Fun fact: Shumate holds the record of speedily running up, that’s right, up the big green nordic ski jumps at the Utah Olympic Park. He did it in four minutes and change in the grueling summertime Red Bull 400.