Bryan Fletcher leapt into contention in the large hill/10 k individual at 2015 World Championships with the 13th-best jump to start the race within 44 seconds of first. In the fight for third until the last few hundred meters, he placed fifth for U.S. Nordic Combined's best individual result at World Championships since 2009.
In the first nordic-combined competition of World Championships, Germany's Johannes Rydzek had some of the best timing all day, attacking late to drop his lone rival before the finish: Italy's Alessandro Pittin. The U.S. saw top-20 jumps from Billy Demong and Ben Berend, and Taylor Fletcher skied up from 25th to 19th.
On the second day of the inaugural three-day Nordic Combined Triple, several top skiers, including Jason Lamy-Chappuis, Akito Watabe, Tino Edelmann, and Mikko Kokslien, chat on camera and dish about their favorite U.S. athletes.
A day after Alessandro Pittin became the first Italian to win a nordic combined World Cup event, the Olympic bronze medalist repeated his success, edging Jason Lamy Chappuis of France on Saturday in Chaux-Neuve, France. After ranking 22nd of 54 athletes in the 118-meter large hill jump, Pittin went on to catch the leaders in the 10 k Gundersen start and pulled out the victory in a photo finish with Lamy Chappuis and Fabian Riessle...
After just missing the medals in the first two competitions at the 2011 World Championships, an American-born athlete was back on top of the nordic combined podium on Wednesday. Billy Demong? Nope. Todd Lodwick? Guess again. Maybe Johnny Spillane? Or the two flying Fletcher brothers, Bryan and Taylor? No, no, and no. Instead, it was Jason Lamy Chappuis, a French citizen born in Montana, who took the win in the individual large hill competition in...
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.
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.
Bryan Fletcher posted the top American result at the World Cup in Schonach (GER), finishing in 31st place after an unfortunate turn of events on the cross-country course.
Only a tenth of a second separated Todd Lodwick from third place in the Nordic Combined in Ramsau, Austria.
The US Nordic Combined Team delivered some promising jumping during the provisional round in Ramsau, Austria, Friday. The provisional jumping netted a fourth place for Todd Lodwick and a 15th place for Bryan Fletcher.
US Nordic Combined Team seems to be making a pattern of improving on the second day of a World Cup weekend. Bryan Fletcher finished 26th in Lillehammer Sunday, after a 44th place on Saturday.
The Americans faced a tough day both on the hill and on the course during Saturday’s Nordic combined WC in Lillehammer. Mikko Kokslien (NOR) won, ahead of Jason Lamy-Chappuis (FRA) and Felix Gottwald (AUT) in third place. Brett Camerota in 40th place was the top US skier. Taylor Fletcher was 41st, Bryan Fletcher 44th and Bill Demong 45th.
Bryan Fletcher skied into a solid 18th place in the second World Cup competition this season, a career best for the 24-year-old from Steamboat Springs, Colo. Felix Gottwald (AUT) won the race, working from 28th place after jumping to beat Mikko Kokslien (NOR) who started in 21st place.
For the US nordic combined team, the FIS World Cup opener in Finland leaves room for improvement. Demong was 32nd, Taylor Fletcher was 35th and Bryan Fletcher was 37th. Brett Camerotta was 40th after the jumping, but did not start the cross-country leg.
You may not recognize the name Chad Salmela, but if you live in the United States and watched any of the biathlon, nordic combined, or cross-country ski races at the 2010 Olympics, you’ve heard his voice. Along with play-by-play man Al Trautwig, Salmela spent the month of February the band A M Herculis. Now that the dust has settled, we caught up with Salmela to hear what it was like behind the scenes at the...
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...
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,...