April 16, 2024
Shaw Local
NewsSubscribePrep SportseNewspaperChicago BearsNewsletterThe SceneObituariesEvent Calendar

Norge Ski Club’s Casey Larson, Patrick Gasienica qualify for 2022 Winter Olympics

Both will join Kevin Bickner at Games in Beijing

By Michal Dwojak
Casey Larson of the Norge Ski Club in Fox River Grove jumps during the normal hill individual ski jumping trial round for qualification Thursday at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Casey Larson of the Norge Ski Club in Fox River Grove jumps during the normal hill individual ski jumping trial round for at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. (AP Photo)

Kevin Bickner won’t be the lone Norge Ski Club skier competing at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing next month.

Team USA announced Thursday that Barrington-native Casey Larson and Chicago’s Patrick Gasienica will join Bickner as part of the U.S. ski jumping team. All three grew up training at Norge Ski Club in Fox River Grove.

The upcoming Olympics in China will be the second for Larson, 23, who competed in the 2018 Winter Olympics held in PyeongChang. He finished ninth in the team event, 39th in the normal hill and 53rd in the large hill.

Gasienica, 23, will compete in his first Olympic Games.

Bickner, 25 and a native of Wauconda, qualified for his second Olympic Games on Christmas Day when he finished first in the U.S. Olympic Trials in Lake Placid, New York.

The team will be the U.S.’s smallest ski jumping team in 94 years. It’s the first time the U.S. failed to qualify for the Olympic men’s team event in ski jumping, which was added in 1988.

Ski jumping competition in Beijing will start on Feb. 5 with the men’s individual normal hill qualification.