Calgarian Abi Strate has had a run of victories, seizing podium finishes in all of the summer ski jumping competitions and putting pressure on her European opponents ahead of the Milano Cortina Olympic Games in February 2026.
Ahead of preparing for those games, Strate returned home to Calgary to spend a few weeks away from her sport and get refreshed before the long final push in Slovakia to train.
Her current slate of victories comes as a breakthrough for the Bronze medal-winning Olympian, pushing her ranking to third in the world.
“It’s easy to get a big ego or a lot of confidence from good performances, but I’m really just trying to appreciate it every time and be thankful and keep working on the process. In a sport like this, there’s always things to work on,” she said.
“So, even when I’m on the podium or when I’m winning, I’m like, ‘but what could I have done a little bit better?’ You never know in the winter who’s going to show up at top level. So, still lots of work to do between now and Milano.”
Strate took home a gold in the Val di Fiemme summer Grand Prix for Women’s Normal Hill in Sept.
She said that competition was the highest stakes for the summer season and was full of pressure.
“I knew I wanted to perform really well there and make sure that I was physically, mentally, in my best shape, coming to that weekend. So really good to go there and not just do well, but win. I was kind of very shocked, very happy,” she said.
“We were testing the Olympic Hill. Everybody showed up. There were some teams missing through the summer at the other events, but that one we knew, ‘OK, it’s gonna be a full field.’ This is pretty much everyone who’s gonna show up to the World Cups in the winter and to the games.”
Strate said those big summer wins came as a result of the hard work she’s put in to preparing both physically and mentally.
A pair of crashes, one that was potentially life-ending, where her head was caught in the fence lining the edge of the jump course, left her with a mental block that was keeping her from performing her best.
“Last year, especially, I think was a bit of a silent struggle for me. I kind of kept it from my coaches and from everyone close to me, because I was trying to be brave and just like, OK, I can get over this. I’m going to keep pushing. I’m going to keep trying to jump good, and it just wasn’t working,” said Strate.
“It beat me down more than I thought it did, and more than I admitted. Once I confronted that and kind of brought it forward and tackled it at the end of last winter, I started having a little bit of hope and a little bit of I ended on a good note, and then I went into the spring on a good note, and I went in and I had that motivation back.”
She said the current slate of wins has put her on a good footing for the Olympics.
“There’s two sides to it, because it adds that pressure, like, ‘oh, I can go and win, I can go and podium, okay, oh, now I have to do it when it really counts.’ But on the flip side, it does just really boost the confidence for me,” Strate said.
“I’m trying to just make it, take that pressure off, and just have confidence in my abilities and in my training, and hopefully that’ll be the approach. You never know when you show up on Olympic day, how you’re gonna feel when you wake up, and how you’re gonna feel when you get to the top of the hill. So, just gonna try to keep doing every day as best I can and show up there ready.”
Ski jumping training begins during the 2026 games on Feb. 5, 2026, and the first medal event for women’s normal hill individual is on Feb. 7.
