STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, CO – With a total of seven Olympic medals in tow, the U.S. Ski Team’s nordic combined superstars Billy Demong (Vermontville, NY), Johnny Spillane (Steamboat Springs, CO), Todd Lodwick (Steamboat Springs, CO) and Brett Camerota (Park City, UT) have shipped off to the middle east to visit the troops as part of the 2010 Heavy Medal Tour. The Olympic heroes received a sendoff of gold-medal proportion on Friday as the town of Steamboat...
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, CO – In support of the U.S. Ski Team athletes departing this week on the Armed Forces Entertainment’s Heavy Medal Tour to visit troops, the athletes’ hometown communities are enacting a Heavy Medal Tour Yellow Ribbon campaign. The Olympic medalists: Bill Demong (Vermontville, NY), Johnny Spillane (Steamboat Springs, CO), Brett Camerota (Park City, UT) and Todd Lodwick (Steamboat Springs, CO) and their combined seven Olympic gold and silver medals depart Saturday, April 3...
Oslo, Norway – The Norwegian team gave the home crowd a show as the nation won the nordic combined team event at the Holmenkollen Ski Festival Saturday, the biggest sporting event in Norway. The U.S. Ski Team went with its three individual Olympic medalists, adding 18 year old Nick Hendrickson (Park City, UT) as the fourth for the rare World Cup team event. “Being in the fight at the beginning and in the end, fighting...
The FIS Nordic World Cup Holmenkollen in Oslo, Norway, will be held on 13rd-14th March 2010. Most of the ultra-modern new Holmenkollen National Arena will be in use for the first time. The year-round facility will not only host the traditional Holmenkollen Ski Festival for years to come, but also offer a landmark location for children, young people, professionals and the general public to practice Nordic ski sports. “We are looking forward to welcoming both...
Olympic Heavy Medal Tour to visit U.S. military bases in Southwest Asia Washington, D.C. – The 2010 U.S. Olympic Nordic Combined Team takes the helm of the Armed Forces Entertainment (
As Billy Demong and Johnny Spillane strode triumphantly to the podium for the flower ceremony after today’s nordic combined competition, a parade of sullen-looking Europeans was walking through the mixed zone, in the other direction. It was easy to miss them—after all, they weren’t the ones who won medals. But they had an interesting story to tell, too: how Thursday’s weather conditions in the jumping round had ruined their chances for Olympic glory. Big names...
Whistler, British Columbia – The US Nordic Combined team will paying overweight on their flight back to Park City. A historic day doubled their Vancouver medal haul, giving them nearly nine pounds of hardware. Billy Demong skied away from teammate Johnny Spillane and Austrian Bernard Gruber on the final climb to claim Olympic gold. With a move of his own, Spillane left Gruber in the dust, too—laying claim to his 3rd silver medal of the...
Whistler, British Columbia – The two skiers swept around the large curve down into the stadium, Billy Demong of the USA in the lead, Austrian Mario Stecher right on his heels, the gold medal waiting, just 200 meters away. Stecher stepped out, tucking past Demong. There would be no sprint for the line. The gap was enough, and Austria champions. The American team, in claiming the silver, made US Nordic Combined history for the second...
After being selected as the fourth member of the U.S. nordic combined team’s relay squad, the pressure was all on Brett Camerota’s shoulders this morning as he took to the top of the jump. He didn’t disappoint, coming through with his best-ever leap on the big hill here in Whistler and setting up the Americans for another podium finish this afternoon, after Johnny Spillane’s silver last week. The team will start the 4×5 k relay...
There are few opportunities to list American Nordic skiers as gold medal favorites, but the US Nordic Combined squad has changed that over the last few years. And in today’s team event, there is no other nation that can match the depth and ski speed of the Americans. With three skiers all capable of winning individual events, and the up-an-coming Brett Camerota who had a fantastic jump in the first individual competition, the US is...
After Johnny Spillane won a silver medal Sunday afternoon—the first of any color in U.S. nordic combined history—his former coach, Tom Steitz, voiced the rhetorical question on every reporter’s mind here. “How do you boil up 86 years of emotion and frustration?” he asked. The answer? Todd Lodwick’s face. Struggling to explain himself and holding back tears after just missing out on the bronze, Lodwick quivered with feeling: fierce pride for his teammate and friend,...
Whistler, British Columbia – The first of two individual Olympic nordic combined competitions will be held today at Whistler Olympic Park. The United States is in the unique position of having three medal hopefuls – Todd Lodwick, Billy Demong, and Johnny Spillane. While unlikely, a US sweep of the podium is not out of the question. The jumping portion of the competition will be held in under an hour at 10:00 at Whistler Olympic Park,...
VANCOUVER, BC (Feb. 9) – With 13 trips to the Olympics between them, 2010 U.S. Olympic Nordic Combined Team members Billy Demong (Vermontville, NY), Todd Lodwick and Johnny Spillane (both Steamboat Sprints, CO) are far from star struck at these Games in Vancouver. More so than ever, they’re the stars. “It just feels like this Olympic Games, it seems different,” said Olympic Trials winner Johnny Spillane after landing on the world’s biggest stage for the...
PARK CITY, UT (Jan. 21) – Three World Champions were among five athletes announced Thursday by the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) to compete on the 2010 Olympic Nordic Combined Ski Team. Billy Demong (Vermontville, NY), Todd Lodwick and Johnny Spillane (both Steamboat Springs, CO) will headline the strongest U.S. team ever in the sport. USSA President and CEO Bill Marolt, together with the U.S. Olympic Committee and Team partner Visa, announced the roster...
It’s a pretty good sign for the U.S. Nordic Combined Team that a fourth-place World Cup finish for Bill Demong isn’t greeted with a whole lot of fanfare. With 28 days before the first race of the 2010 Olympic Games, Demong and his teammates have already been on the podium four times this year, despite the fact that Head Coach Dave Jarrett says that his athletes haven’t even tried to peak yet. In Sunday’s World...
Chaux Neuve, France – The US Nordic Combined turned in another stellar performance, edging closer to sweeping the World Cup podium, placing three skiers in the top six this morning. Todd Lodwick led the squad in third, 7.1 seconds behind winner Magnus Moan (NOR). Jason Lamy Chapuis, the overall World Cup leader finished 2nd. Johnny Spillane and Billy Demong took 5th and 6th respectively, after leading most of the race. Lamy Chapuis started with a...
Used to being on the podium in previous years, Billy Demong started this season fairly slowly by his standards, placing between 8th and 14th in his World Cup finishes. But this Sunday’s World Cup in Val di Fiemme
Editor’s Note: The cross-country portion of th race was held on the same course as the Tour de Ski final climb. VAL DI FIEMME, Italy (Jan. 10) – It was history in the making in Italy Sunday as World Champions Billy Demong (Vermontville, NY) and Todd Lodwick (Steamboat Springs, CO) took first and second, marking the first time two U.S. athletes have made the FIS Nordic Combined World Cup podium together. Demong had built a...
PREDAZZO, Italy (Jan. 9) – The U.S. Ski Team’s three world champions played a key role in a back-and-forth battle Saturday in the FIS Nordic Combined World Cup in Predazzo. But in the end, it was Austria’s Felix Gottwald taking the win with Johnny Spillane (Steamboat Springs, CO) fourth. It was the Olympic champion’s first win since coming out of retirement. Spillane, along with Billy Demong (Vermontville, NY) and Todd Lodwick (Steamboat Springs, CO), were...
