About Nicole Maurer

Date of Birth: January 28, 2000
Place of Birth: Calgary
Residence: Calgary
Instagram: nicole_a_m

Background:

Nicole followed her brother into the sport of ski jumping. Hanging around the hill waiting for big brother to end practice, a coach told her you can’t just sit here and put her in a pair of skis and sent her off the ski jump. An Olympic dream was ignited and a new adventure began. Nicole was going to be a ski jumper.

Nicole immediately stepped onto the podium as a young ski jumper. She was the only girl in her age category so finished every competition with a balanced perspective. “I used to say ‘I got first and last.”As time went on the sport grew for females and the competitions became competitive at home and around the world.

Fact of the matter, Nicole has been dreaming of being able to compete for her country at the Olympics since she was a child. Since women’s ski jumping was not in the Olympics until the 2014 Olympics this dream seemed to be unachievable no matter how hard she tried because there was no opportunity for women leapers at the Olympics. After it was announced women’s jumping would be included in the Games, Nicole’s childhood dream was reignited.

Today, centralized with her teammates in Planica, Slovenia to have access to world-leading facilities and coaching that is not available to them in Canada, Nicole takes great pride having not only the opportunity to compete against the best in the world in the sport, but the feeling of being a part of the community. A competitive person by nature, she feels being surrounded in a competitive culture of excellence keeps life exciting and fun while enjoying the sensation of flying.

A highlight was getting 24th in the Korean World Cup (Olympic Test Event) that qualified her for the National Team in addition to being invited to compete at World Championships in Lahti, Finland in 2017. Getting 7th in the Lillehammer Continental Cup was a career highlight

Excellence in the Classroom:

When not chasing the international ski jumping podium, Nicole is focused on achieving excellence in the classroom. A standout graduate at the National Sport School, Nicole is currently enrolled at University of Calgary for a dual major in Computer Science and Astrophysics. Her flight path after ski jumping is clear – she wants to be an astronaut, or work in the space industry! With little funding in place to support her Olympic pursuit, Nicole works multiple jobs throughout the year, also does data entry for multiple companies (remotely), and also coaches some times when she is in Calgary. One day she hopes to work in the space industry.

Outside Interests:

Nicole enjoys staying active with coordination activities like juggling a soccer ball, or practicing tricks, and playing volleyball, tennis, soccer with friends. She enjoys taking photos of her travels, reading books about physics and astronomy in order to stay in touch with her degree. She also enjoys playing musical instruments for fun.

Odds and Ends:

Nicole collects rocks from each place she has travelled. She also collects her accreditation cards and competition bibs from each of her events. Favourite motto: “I guess you could call it a “failure”, but I prefer the term “learning experience.” – Andy Weir

Career Highlights: