How State College area teen Jenna Riccomini went from the slopes of Tussey Mountain to Youth Olympics
The sun in Lausanne, Switzerland, glistened off Jenna Riccomini’s ski goggles and reflected a blue-green light.
After a quick fist bump with her coach and some quick words of advice, “get it” — Jenna dropped in at the biggest competition of her life.
It was a competition that the Port Matilda native reached through her determined work ethic on and off the slopes that took her from a local ski slope in Centre County to carrying the flag and representing the United States at the Youth Olympics in Switzerland.
Jenna finished eighth in the women’s freestyle skiing slopestyle competition Jan. 20-22 as one of the 1,800 competitors ages 15-18 who took part in the Youth Olympics from more than 70 countries around the world.
While the 15-year-old’s lifestyle might not be that of a typical teenager — rubbing elbows with internationally known athletes, and studying as a State College Area High School student from a training center in Colorado — Jenna is embracing every moment of her journey.
Experience of a lifetime
The moment before Jenna’s first run in Switzerland is something she will never forget.
“My first time dropping in I was like ‘holy crap’ and I took a breath and I just took everything in,” Jenna said. “I’m super happy that I did that because otherwise the experience wouldn’t have been as good. Just taking everything in and seeing how everybody was standing there, that was extremely nerve-racking.
“I just noticed every single little detail before I went.”
She remembers her friends cheering, the roar of the crowd at he bottom of the slope and, most importantly, focusing on hitting a perfect run.
This opportunity to represent her nation on the Olympic stage, at a young age, isn’t lost on Jenna.
“It’s definitely a huge deal,” Jenna said. “Because you look at all of these other athletes that don’t get the chance to do that.
“You only get to do it once, if you miss the age, because it only happens every four years, so it’s pretty big.”
Her father, Paul Riccomini didn’t quite comprehend the magnitude of the competition at first.
That all changed when he arrived in Switzerland to watch his daughter compete.
“I had kind of underestimated how big the event was,” Paul Riccomini said. “It didn’t hit me until I got over there and saw all the other athletes wearing countries’ uniforms and seeing Japan, China, Russia, and then see my daughter in a Team USA jacket was overwhelming and almost a little surreal. She had worked so hard to get there that it was nice to see that kind of pay off.”
For Jenna, one of the most exciting aspects of the experience was meeting other athletes from around the world and competing against one of the world’s best in Kelly Sildaru, an Estonian skier who became the youngest athlete to win a X Games gold medal when she was 13, just four years ago.
But the biggest moment for Jenna during the games was a surprise, something that happened off the slopes.
A surprise honor
Near the end of the games, her coach pulled her aside and said “Don’t get anywhere yet, we want to talk to you,” which immediately made Jenna think she was in trouble.
“We then go out the back and there is the reporter for Team USA, and she starts recording and I’m like super confused,” Jenna said.
That’s when Jenna’s coach told her that she had been selected to carry the U.S. flag during the closing ceremony.
“He chose me out of every other U.S. athlete that was there for Wave 2,” Jenna said. “He could’ve chosen any athlete but he chose me. It means a lot, especially coming from him.”
Jenna broke the news to her father in a text.
Once again, Paul Riccomini was shocked as he began to comprehend the magnitude of the honor.
“I didn’t know exactly what that meant, and then an article came out and I read the article and there was a picture of her holding the flag, which was just another icing on the whole experience for her to carry that,” Paul Riccomini said. “Then when it really hit home was when I was watching the closing ceremonies and Jimmy Roberts, who is the famous NBC announcer for the Olympics, actually said her name. That’s when it really hit me.”
The Youth Olympics lasted 13 days, and for Riccomini and the rest of the athletes, it was a grueling two weeks filled with early mornings and late nights.
On the day of her competition, Riccomini woke up around 4:30 a.m., got ready, ate breakfast and gathered her gear before boarding her first bus of the day at 5:45.
All in all, the journey from The Vortex, where the athletes stayed, to the top of the mountain was two hours long, meaning that every competition day, Jenna had about a 12-14-hour day from the time she woke up to returning back to her room.
“Once you get back to the Vortex you would basically crash, maybe go trade pins, get dinner, use the recovery the machines, get on the spin bike, whatever you would like to do,” Jenna said.
But to Jenna, it was all worth it.
Lifelong passion
Jenna’s wild journey on the slopes all started in Centre Country at one slope — Tussey Mountain.
Jenna first put skis on when she was two years old, when her father was a ski instructor at Tussey.
“Like most parents we tried to expose Jenna to most sports, but skiing was something that she liked it from the get-go,” Paul Riccomini said. “We never had to fight her to get dressed, or get her stuff on. Once she had those skis she fell in love with it.”
But the moment that changed everything for Riccomini was when her brother had her go off her first box, a type of small jump. From there things only continued to progress.
She met a coach who saw potential in the young skier, and had a private lesson at Woodward Copper in Colorado, which Jenna says helped shape her skiing. From there, Jenna continued training in freestyle skiing at Big Boulder in the Poconos.
That is where Jenna also developed her love for the slopestyle competition.
“Being able to link five or six tricks together on a set of jumps and rails gives a good balance and you aren’t so focused on one thing,” Jenna said. “You aren’t focused on just jumps or just rails, it is a mix of everything and it is definitely one of the more thrilling events.”
Then, when Jenna was 10 years old, she entered her first competition, which she ended up winning.
“I went to that competition and was like ‘Oh god, I’ve never done that before, I’m a new competitor. They are obviously going to win,’ and you know I ended up coming out on top,” Jenna said. “Just from then on I got a thrill from it and I was like this is awesome, I’ve got to do something with this.”
Now Jenna trains full time in Colorado from November to mid-April, with an intense training schedule full of long days.
“I ski, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” Jenna said. “Then during the week they are half days. So I get to school around 8 and I’ll come in and I’ll have a maybe 30-minute tutoring session and we will work on school.”
Then after a long day full of training and school, Jenna gets dropped off at her host family’s house, eats dinner, does more school work, recovers and eventually goes to sleep at 8:30 p.m., before doing it all again the next day.
Jenna was 12 years old when she first went to Colorado to train for an eight-week trial session. She found out then how difficult leaving her family would be.
“It was difficult at first but it slowly became easier as I met more people and became closer with my teammates,” Jenna said. “I just had a really good support group.”
Finding balance
The move to Colorado also resulted in a big change in Jenna’s academics. Jenna is still enrolled in State College Area School District through its virtual school program. But as a totally online school experience, it provides its own set of challenges.
Even after two years, Jenna is still adjusting.
“You have to have a very good work ethic to do it,” Jenna said. “You have to be there, you have to have that fire and do your school work just like you have that fire to ski.
“You really have to balance it out and whether that means staying up an extra hour to do some extra school work or waking up early in the morning to get some done on a Saturday. You have to sacrifice stuff to reach your dreams.”
In order to help her with her schooling, her parents have Jenna go to a tutoring center to replicate the pattern of going to school and having interaction with a teaching figure.
After missing 13 days of schooling while competing in Switzerland, Jenna does have some catching up to do — particularly with math.
But once she’s done hitting the books, Jenna is anxious to get back to hitting the slopes. After getting a taste of international competition, she now has even higher goals.
“I’d say one of my bigger goals this year is getting over and doing some more international competitions and doing well and podium-ing” Jenna said. “So I’m focusing on that now.”
This story was originally published February 1, 2020 at 8:00 AM.
