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United States' Bill Demong makes his trial jump during the Men's Nordic Combined team event at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Whistler on Feb. 23, 2010
In the mid-1990s, where did Nordic Combined sit on America's Winter Olympic hierarchy? "We were at the bottom of the barrel," says Tom Steitz, the U.S. Nordic Combined coach from 1980 through 2002. "We owned last place." Steitz led the push to snare more funding for the obscure sport, which mixes ski jumping and cross-country skiing, over the last decade. But he recalls the days in which Nordic Combined athletes trekked through Europe like broke college students, sleeping in elementary school gyms, piling into tiny rental cars like circus clowns, begging other countries to drive their skis to events (there just wasn't room in the backseats). "We had to get creative," says Steitz. "There were times we moved from town to town pretty quickly. I probably still owe some people some money."
Can Seitz's creditors accept Olympic medals as collateral? Prior to these Olympics, the U.S. had never won an Olympic medal in Nordic Combined, a sport that has been contested in the Games since 1924. Countries like Norway, the sport's namesake, Finland, and Germany have dominated the event. But to borrow a phrase from the host country of these Olympics, now the Americans own the podium. Thanks in part to an infusion of coaches, technicians, physiologists, and other ski specialists devoted to the team in recent years, on Feb. 14 Johnny Spillane clinched the first American Olympic medal in Nordic Combined when he won a silver in the individual "normal hill" event (though the designation refers to the competition is held on the smaller of the two ski jumping towers, there's nothing "normal" about hurling yourself 100 meters off a ramp on skis). But America's second place finish in the team event Wednesday, behind gold-medal winner Austria, is the much sweeter, since it shows the collective strength of the program. (See the latest pictures from the 2010 Winter Games.)
The ski sport of Nordic Combined — which started, as the terribly unsexy name suggests, in mid-nineteenth century Norway — is an anomaly in the Winter Olympics because it mixes two wildly different disciplines. Yes, both jumpers and cross-country racers wear skis. But other than that, you might as well mix ice dancing with speed skating and call it a day. Cross-country requires extreme endurance; ski jumping requires insanity. "It is kind of stupid," says Finland's Janne Ryynaenen of the odd combination. Ryynaenen nailed the longest leap of the day, 138.5 meters from the takeoff, during the ski jumping portion of the Nordic Combined Team event. "It makes no sense." (See why women aren't allowed to ski jump in the Olympics.)
What the sport lacks in intuition, however, it more than made up for in entertainment during Wednesday's competition at Whistler Olympic Park. In the team event, four skiers from each of the ten countries complete one jump in the morning. Their combined jumping scores determine their position for afternoon 4 by 5-km cross country relay; for example, on Wednesday the Finns, who finished first in jumping, got a two second head-start on the U.S., which finished second, and a 2-minute-and-19-second advantage over Italy, which leapt like little bullfrogs and finished last in the morning jump. There's a two-and-a-half-hour break between the two events. "You put on your jump hat for a few hours, and as soon as jumping is over, you go snort down a sandwich and put on your cross-country gear," says Billy Demong, a U.S. Nordic Combined athlete competing in his third Olympics. (See TIME's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics.)
But you don't just change your clothes. "You change your mindset completely," says Demong. "Because [ski-jumping] is very technical, and you've got to be really relaxed and kind of just focused on swinging through it essentially. In [ the relay] you've got to get your game face on and get angry, get going...You've got to be ready to hurt."
Though the U.S. didn't club the entire field on Wednesday, its Nordic Combined team still sent a strong message: this European-dominated sport is no longer yours. The day started out strongest for the Finns, who were counting on the Nordic event to increase their paltry medal tally. Finnish Olympic officials had set a goal of 12 medals for the country in Vancouver; to date, it has one. Over the last three Olympics, the Finns have won gold, silver, and bronze in the Nordic Combined team competition. "It's not big; it's phenomenal," says Pasi Uusivuori, a manager at a Finland-based medical technology company, describing the status of the sport in the Scandinavian country. "It's bigger than life."
The Finns, however, will have to deal with more disappointment. They shined in the air, having taken the top spot after the ski jumping competition, but broke down on the ground, finishing seventh after cross-country. (Norway, the patriarch of the sport, came in fifth.) In the afternoon, a steady snowfall turned the cross-county course into a postcard. American Brett Camerota, who, at 25 and the youngest member of the team, is supposedly its weak link, finished almost three seconds ahead of Finland's Ryynaenen in the first leg of the relay, giving the Americans a lead. Todd Lodwick, making his fifth Olympic appearance, held it, but Austria slowly gained ground, and Felix Gottwald opened a 14-second gap against the third American racer, Spillane. (Watch a video about how Lodwick trains.)
In a 5-km cross-country race, a 14-second lead is a comfortable cushion. Yet, Demong's push against Austria's Mario Stecher set up, for this observer's money, the most memorable finish of these Olympics to date. It made you seriously wonder why this sport doesn't garner more attention in the States, and admire Europe's good taste in obsessing over events that we foolishly offer a big fat yawn. After all, what's more engrossing than a good-ol' fashioned race to the finish?
Demong steadily chipped away at Stecher's lead, cutting it in half after 1.7 km, and down to 2.2 seconds halfway through the final leg. "If I were an odds maker," said one of the public address announcers, a purported Nordic Combined expert, "Stecher is the guy you wouldn't want at the end." Was the Austrian toast? Demong finally passed Stecher — for a moment, it appeared as if Stecher was about to give up and ski off the course. Going into the final 0.8 km stretch, the duo was essentially tied.
Stecher built a small lead, but Demong passed him again, on an uphill climb. "I hoped to ovep up a gap of four or five seconds to be able to hold on to the finish," says Demong. "I was like, ah, I think I'm getting there, getting there. And them I hit him with my pole, I'm, like, 'arrgh,' he's still here." On a downhill glide, Stecher made the final pass, and Austria won the gold by 5.2 seconds.
The Americans were still justifiably jubilant after the race. "We're damn satisfied," says Demong. On Thursday, the U.S. has one more opportunity to snare that elusive gold, in the individual large hill competition. "I'm not surprised," says Tomas Slavik, a Nordic Combined athlete from the Czech Republic, of the U.S. performance. "Bill [Demong], Jonny [Spillane] and Todd [Lodwick] came up together as juniors, and been doing this for a long time. America is a force." Now, when they now trek thought Europe on the Nordic Combined circuit, the skiers can leave sleeping bags at home. And they won't have to flee the bagman.Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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