Tate Frantz: Flying Into His Olympic Debut

Tate was skiing almost as soon as he could walk.

“I was first on skis at one or two years old in the backyard when I was just able to walk and shuffle around. I was on cross-country skis, downhill skis, always hitting jumps, always catching air. I clearly had an interest from a young age in trying to go bigger, further, and faster.”

Ski jumping came at nine. Not as a grand decision, but as an after-school experiment that changed everything.

“Trying ski jumping is not super common, but that’s the way the cookie crumbled for me. Luckily in Lake Placid, we had the venues and the opportunity to give it a go. When I started working my way up to bigger hills and more speed, that feeling of flying… it’s what keeps me, and I think most athletes, coming back.”

Turning Fear into Excitement

Starting young meant Tate didn’t really account for risk in the beginning. In fact, fear came later.

“When you’re nine or ten, you don’t really think through the consequences. You’re just excited. You throw your little rubber-band body off the jump and even if you crash, you’ll probably be okay.”

But as he got older, fear evolved.

“Fear definitely developed naturally as I grew up. You just become more aware of your body, your situation, the consequences. That’s normal. For me, the goal isn’t to get rid of fear, it’s rather to not give it too much power.”  

He talks about fear in two dimensions: physical risk, and emotional pressure.

“A tiny bit of fear is actually important. It gives you respect for the hill, the wind, the conditions, Mother Nature. Confidence matters, but so does respect for the elements”

And then for Tate, there’s the harder part that athletes around the world can certainly relate to..

“The fear I struggle with most is the fear of not succeeding. Wanting to show your best, wanting results. That pressure is real. To be completely honest, I still deal with it.”

His way through? Reframing.

“If I can turn even one percent of that fear into excitement, that’s a win. The days I’m having the most fun are almost always the days I perform best. So a lot of my work is trying to make competition feel like play again.”

Before the Jump

Right before he goes, Tate finds grounding in visualization and by trusting the muscle memory that he’s built through years and years of training. 

“Before competing, I imagine the feeling of a really good jump I’ve done before. Ultimately, we’ve trained for thousands of hours. If you let muscle memory kick in, that’s when you do your best. Instead of trying to control every little thing, you just have to relax and let your body do what it knows how to do.”

When it clicks, something special happens.

“When you’re jumping well, it feels like the easiest sport in the world. Everything just lines up. You’re just in it, enjoying it. It’s such a cool feeling when something that’s actually very hard feels effortless.”

Tate’s Leap to Norway

At 16, in the middle of COVID, Tate made one of the boldest decisions of his career. He applied to a sports school in Norway….and went. He arrived alone. No understanding of the language. No friends. No safety net.

“I showed up not knowing anybody and not speaking Norwegian at all. I lived there for three years, finished high school there, and had to teach myself to speak Norwegian fluently just to go to school.”

Looking back, he sees that experience as bigger than sport.

“It forced me to trust myself. I had to create a life, a rhythm, a community from scratch. Now I look back and think…that was freaking awesome. It taught me that if I want something, I can go after it.”

That mindset is exactly what carried him to the Olympic team.

Paying Inspiration Forward 

Tate doesn’t try to be flashy. His advice is simple. 

“Ten years ago I told myself I wanted to go to the Olympics, and now I’m going to the freaking Olympics. That’s crazy to think about. So yes, if you want something, you really can go get it if you put your mind to it.”

But the most important part? Joy.

“More than anything, just have fun. Fun keeps you in the sport. Fun keeps you coming back for decades. Nobody performs well if they’re miserable. If you keep it fun, the results tend to follow.”

Stories like Tate’s are exactly what Back The Team is built to share. We’re going behind-the-scenes of the Winter Games through real conversations about mindset, pressure, and performance from the world’s best athletes. Live from Milan as the action unfolds. Follow along!