Alexandria Loutitt makes more history, crowned Canada’s first ski jumping world champion

Alexandria Loutitt has made history for the third time this season, becoming Canada’s first ever world champion in ski jumping.

Loutitt captured the gold medal in the women’s large hill event at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Planica, Slovenia on Wednesday. That is the first medal ever won by a Canadian ski jumper at the world championships.

The 19-year-old Canadian had a share of the lead after the first round of jumping in the final, as she sat tied with Norwegian Maren Lundby with 130.9 points. The second round of jumping was a completely different story. Loutitt flew 136.5 metres — more than three metres farther than anyone else in that round — which earned her 133.5 points from the judges.

Loutitt’s final score of 264.4 points gave her the win by more than 10 points over Lundby, who only totalled 254.0 points. Katharina Althaus of Germany, who had been attempting to become the first ski jumper to win four gold medals at one worlds, took the bronze with 245.9 points.

Loutitt had looked good in Tuesday’s qualification round, finishing second to Althaus. The large hill event gave her an opportunity to bounce back from disappointment in the normal hill event last Thursday when she dropped from eighth after the first final jump to 26th overall.

In January, Loutitt became the first Canadian woman to win a World Cup ski jumping event. In early February, she became the first Canadian woman to win a world junior title in ski jumping, doing that in front of home fans in Whistler.