LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (Oct. 7) - A SuperTour competition Friday kicks off three days of ski jumping - including Continental Cup action for men and women - on the 1980 Olympic normal hill (HS100) at the MacKenzie Intervale Jumping Complex. Olympian Clint Jones (Steamboat Springs, CO) will be aiming for a fifth podium performance while two-time Olympian Alan Alborn (Acnhorage, AK) is expected to make his first competitive jumps after coming back from knee surgery.

The weather call is for rain late Friday, well after the SuperTour event, and the tapering to breezes Saturday during the first Continental Cup events, which conclude the first period of the Continental Cup schedule.

Jones was second in back-to-meet meets in Lillehammer, Norway, in August and finished second and third in two Continental Cup competitions a week ago at Utah Olympic Park in Park City to move into second place behind runaway leader Marcin Bachleda of Poland.

Alborn is returning after tearing knee ligaments last January in a free-skiing mishap. He reinjured his left knee earlier this summer, but has been jumping for the past few weeks at UOP. He sat out last weekend's competitions to rest the knee so he would be healthy for the Lake Placid events.

Also on the schedule are women's Continental Cup jumping events. The women, who hoped to have their sport added to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, received a boost just before the Park City competitions when the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association announced its support of a formal proposal seeking an International Ski Federation endorsement of women's jumping for 2010.

Lindsey Van (Park City, UT) won the first UOP contest and was third, one spot behind Jessica Jerome (also Park City) in the second event.