Jason Lamy Chappuis (FRA), the overall World Cup winner last winter, was back on top of the podium on Sunday for the second day of Nordic Combined competition in Ramsau, Austria. “Of course I’m very happy that I can wear the yellow bib again, it’s a familiar feeling,” said Lamy Chappuis to the FIS media after his win. The 25-year-old has been on the World Cup podium 42 different times, and has stood at the top...
Last weekend in Lillehammer, Billy Demong’s 11th place was discounted due to a penalty lap miscounting error in the new Nordic Combined pursuit format. In Saturday’s Gundersen format World Cup in Ramsau, Austria, he remained consistent with 11th place—improved, if you consider that last week he would have finished further back if he’d done a fourth penalty loop. Norway’s Jan Schmid won on Saturday with his first career World Cup victory. Two of Schmid’s teammates...
Their plan had been so simple. Stay loose, ski strong and play the first World Cup penalty race by ear. The two Americans that qualified for Sunday’s competition in Lillehammer, Norway, Billy Demong and Bryan Fletcher found that worked well considering the circumstances. As they completed the first of five laps on the 10 k course, Demong and Fletcher watched dozens of skiers take their penalty loops at once. Depending on how they jumped on...
Don’t call the Americans ungrateful. They were happy to be on snow in Kuusamo, Finland, competing for the first time, jumping when they could. But they’re happy to be moving on to Lillehammer, Norway, for the second weekend of the nordic-combined World Cup. The first one was challenging enough. After U.S. veteran Johnny Spillane was eliminated from the competition before it started, missing out a qualifying jump on Friday, the team suffered another blow Saturday...
For the last week, they had been waiting to jump. Really, about 60 nordic-combined athletes from around the world waited all summer for the season to kick off in Kuusamo, Finland. Once there, it seemed the only things holding the athletes back were the weather and the ominous large hill itself. Billy Demong remembered telling someone in an email: “Sometimes survival is success in Kuusamo.” The U.S. nordic combined veteran meant that literally. He was...
If the U.S. Nordic Combined Team got together for Thanksgiving, there might be less football watching and more talk about the kids. That’s the way life is for almost half of the seven-man squad, with each of the “Big Three” aged 30 or older and with at least one child. “It’s a different dynamic than it has been in the past,” said head coach Dave Jarrett, who has two kids of his own. “But it’s...
Bill Demong and Bryan Fletcher led their Nordic Combined teammates to a “reassuring” start of competition this weekend at the FIS Summer Grand Prix in Saturday’s Complete Results (Gundersen start)
FasterSkier Nordic Combined Skier of the Year With Canada supporting a small, and young Nordic Combined team, focus remains on the US squad. And it was an interesting year for the team. Coming off an Olympics with three individual medals, including gold, and a silver in the team competition, it would be easy to understand high expectations, especially with the trio of Billy Demong, Todd Lodwick, and Johnny Spillane returning for another year. But Spillane...
The US Nordic Combined team travels around the world with the usual gear: skis, boots, poles, race suits, iPod. …And a sewing machine.
The American nordic combined skiers came tantalizingly close to medals in their four events at World Championships in Oslo over the past two weeks. In the two team competitions, they were fourth and sixth, while in two individual races, they put two men in the top 10 both times. In Friday’s World Cup in Lahti, Finland, the Americans were spared the fate of again falling just short of the podium—but for the wrong reasons. On...
Second chances are few and far between in professional sports, but with the International Ski Federation adding a second Nordic Combined Team event to the 2011 World Championships, Germany had just that. After taking the silver in the first team competition on Monday, Germany extended an impressive streak of five straight World Championships finishing second. The extra opportunity would not change the results however, and the Germans once again came up short, this time by...
Five years ago, a fourth place finish for the Americans in a nordic combined team event at World Championships would have been tough to swallow, since U.S. medals at major competitions had been few and far between. But in the season following the 2010 Olympics, which saw U.S. athletes take three silvers and a gold, collecting the “wooden medal” in their first of two team events in Oslo was merely a mild letdown. “Considering I’m...
Monday features a team competition on the normal hill, and the US Nordic Combined team is looking to improve on their first race at the 2011 World Championships.
With crew consisting of some real veterans, some seasoned racers and a rookie, the US Nordic Combined Team is ready and excited for the normal hill competition at the 2011 World Championships Saturday. On a good day, it could go all the way to the podium.
Capping the World Cup weekend in Chaux Neuve (FRA) with all four team members in the top 30 is a good indication for being on track for the 2011 Worlds in Oslo. Now it’s all about polishing the details.
CHAUX-NEUVE, France (Jan. 23) – Olympic silver medalist Todd Lodwick (Steamboat Springs, CO) jumped third and hung on in a hotly contested battle to finish eighth in a nordic combined World Cup in Chaux-Neuve in the Jura mountains near Geneva. All four U.S. skiers finished in the top-30 points as France’s Jason Lamy-Chappuis wrapped up the World Cup title with a dominating win. While the podium still eluded the USA, it was another steppingstone event...
CHAUX-NEUVE, France – Bryan Fletcher (Steamboat Springs, CO) turned in yet another strong performance, moving up from 25th in the jump to finish 21st in a nordic combined World Cup in France. Austrian David Kreiner spoiled the day for fans of French World Cup leader Jason Lamy-Chappuis as he took the win. Lamy-Chappuis was fourth. The race also marked the return of Billy Demong (Vermontville, NY) to action following the birth of his baby boy Liam a week...
The upcoming nordic combined World Cup races in France, represent the last chance to get international points before the World Championships in Oslo in February, and the US Nordic Combined racers are eager to collect.
Taylor Fletcher was the top American in the Nordic Combined World Cup event in Seefeld (AUT) Sunday, posting a 29th place.
Todd Lodwick posted a 23rd overall after jumping to 17th, while Bryan Fletcher was the second American in 28th place in the World Cup individual competition. Fletcher was 14th after the jumping in Seefeld (AUT) Saturday.