Park City native Josie Johnson is competing against the world’s best ski jumpers at the Milan Cortina Olympics this month.
The 19-year-old told KPCW ahead of the opening ceremony it hadn’t yet sunk in that she's an Olympian.
“It’s really wild,” she said. “It doesn’t quite feel real.”
Johnson’s women’s normal hill competition is Feb. 7.
She said she loves the feeling of flying that comes with ski jumping.
“It’s like the feeling of when you stick your hand out of the car window, but it’s your entire body,” she said. “It’s just that crazy, cool feeling.”
A lot of hard work goes into achieving the perfect jump. Johnson said the discipline is nicknamed “the golf of winter sports” because technique is just as important.
She said athletes put special focus on the “in-run,” the first portion of the jump where they pick up speed.
“How you’re setting yourself up in the in-run and the takeoff can completely change how your flight is going to be,” she said. “So, practicing those small things of jumping off the ground, or jumping off a moving board, and practicing all of those little motions so that when you get on the hill, it’s all just muscle memory.”
Johnson got her start in the sport through a Youth Sports Alliance after-school program and “never looked back.”
She enjoyed ski jumping right away, but said it took until she was 10 or 11 years old to develop her confidence.
“I think the first four years of my ski jumping career, I just rode off the end – I did not jump at all,” she said. “I was just ski plopping off the end of the jump. But then I started to figure it out.”
From there, she launched her career, joining the national team in 2024.
She said she’s grateful to have grown up in Park City, where she had easy access to the mountains and to winter sports programs.
She said she’d like to see more funding to support young athletes from places like the Midwest to chase their athletic dreams.
Johnson said she’s thankful for the chance to compete on Team USA.
“I get to live the life that I dreamed of when I was younger,” she said.
All three women on this year’s U.S. ski jumping team are first-time Olympians, all with ties to the Beehive State. Johnson is joined by Park City Ski & Snowboard teammate Paige Jones and University of Utah student Annika Belshaw.
