EMILY KWONG, HOST:
After the closing ceremony of the Winter Games, most U.S. Olympians will go back to the United States, but some call countries abroad home. They live in places where winter sports that are obscure in America draw big crowds after the Olympic spotlight fades. NPR's Brian Mann spent time with one U.S. ski jumper building his future in Norway.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: When 20-year-old Tate Frantz showed up at the Milan Cortina Games, he told reporters he wants his sport to catch on back home.
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TATE FRANTZ: And I think that it's something that could really, really pop off in the U.S., watching people fly down a jump going 60, 70 miles an hour - the speed of a car. And...
MANN: With tousled boy-band hair and a big grin, Frantz is one of the young, new faces of U.S. ski jumping. But at that press conference, he also wanted to talk about the country that's now his base, Norway.
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FRANTZ: This, you know, sort of collaboration we have with Norway has had a really, really positive effect, and U.S. ski jumping is trending upwards.
MANN: Frantz's official hometown is Lake Placid in upstate New York. That's where we first caught up with him competing before the Games, on the towering jump where he first started training as a kid.
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Lake Placid's own, here he is - Tate Frantz.
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MANN: Frantz launched into the air like a human rocket...
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MANN: ...His body bent forward over skis spread almost like wings to catch the air. He soared down the big slope, landing cleanly.
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MANN: Frantz got his start here, but he's also helping pioneer a movement to shift U.S. ski jumping's center of gravity to Europe. At age 16, when still in high school, he moved to live in a sports boarding school in Lillehammer.
FRANTZ: I'd say it was extremely important. When I went there, we had a team of about 50 elite athletes on the ski jumping team that we were competing and training with.
MANN: Lake Placid might have a big ski jump, but it doesn't have the deep bench of athletes invested in his sport. That's what he found in winter sports superpower, Norway.
FRANTZ: And that's a huge difference from being at home when I had one or two other athletes. And especially, you know, when I showed up, pretty much every one of those 50 were better than me. So that is something that pushes you, you know, astronomically, I'd say.
MANN: Since moving to Norway, Frantz has notched top 10 finishes on the World Cup circuit. Mimi Wacholder, Frantz's mom, says she was at a competition in Europe when she realized her son was becoming kind of famous.
MIMI WACHOLDER: At the stadium, I watched Tate sign autographs. He can't really walk from the hill to the hotel without being stopped. Here, even in Lake Placid and even at the hill here in Lake Placid, Tate can still be anonymous. So it's really interesting to see the contrast in Europe.
MANN: Frantz isn't alone moving this direction. In 2022, the entire U.S. ski jumping team entered into a partnership with Norway's main ski jumping federation, sharing trainers and technology, with U.S. jumpers now living much of the year in Norway.
TORE SNELI: For the U.S. athletes, to have daily training together with the high-level athletes from Norway is really important.
MANN: That's Norwegian Tore Sneli, head coach of the U.S. ski jumping team. It may sound odd - a foreign country, a Norwegian coach welcoming U.S. athletes, helping them improve. Sneli says more competition is better for the sport.
SNELI: I'm, for sure, happy when Norway is doing well, but to be honest, I'm more happy if our athletes are doing better.
MANN: By our athletes, he means the Americans. In these Olympics, Norway took five jumping medals, including two gold. Frantz and his fellow U.S. ski jumpers didn't break through. Reaching the podium was probably too much to expect for this young team in a sport where the U.S. hasn't medaled in over a century. Sneli says this experiment is just getting started.
SNELI: And in this sport, you also need to be patient and take it step by step.
MANN: After this week, U.S. audiences will mostly go back to ignoring ski jumping. For Frantz and his teammates, this Norwegian focus and lifestyle will keep getting tested as they go on competing in World Cup events that will draw more big crowds next month here in Europe. Brian Mann, NPR News, Milan.
(SOUNDBITE OF LOUIS F BALATRO'S "BALATRO MAIN THEME") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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