Nina Lussi

Nina Lussi was born on March 29, 1994, in Lake Placid, New York. She began her ski jumping career at the age of 8, developing a passion for the sport despite women’s ski jumping not being an Olympic discipline at the time. Early in her career, Lussi achieved multiple Junior Olympic titles in Special Jumping and Nordic Combined. Her international debut occurred in 2009 at the Junior World Championships in Strebske Pleso, Slovakia, where she secured 26th place. She maintained her focus on the sport, graduating from the Austrian Schigymnasium Stams in 2013 and later studying business at the University of Utah.

Lussi’s career saw significant milestones, including her first career top 10 finish in the Continental Cup in March 2013. A year later, she achieved a notable victory by winning the Continental Cup in Falun, Sweden, in March 2014, and also placed second in another competition there. In February 2012, she made her World Cup debut in Hinzenbach, Austria. Her personal best jump was 135 meters in Planica, Slovenia. Lussi also earned two national championships in the fall of 2017 in Lake Placid, winning both the HS90 and Nordic combined competitions. A significant turning point occurred in December 2017 during the U.S. Olympic trials, where a torn ACL in her second jump ended her season and her pursuit of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games. After 13 months of recovery, she resumed competing on the World Cup stage.

Lussi competed in the Olympic trials in Lake Placid in December 2021, placing sixth and contributing to the U.S. team’s Olympic spot for 2022, though she did not fill that spot herself. She retired from the sport in March 2022 after competing in the International Ski Federation Continental Cup in Lake Placid, her home town. She concluded her final competition with fourth and seventh place finishes, along with a silver medal on March 12, 2022, at the same venue where her injury occurred. In her final month of competition, she secured four top 10 finishes in the North American Continental Cup series. Post-retirement, Lussi has expressed interest in continuing in sports, potentially in marketing or sports management.