The US A-Team returned to action on Saturday, Feb 14 in Klingenthal GER where Billy finished fifth. Todd Lodwick did not join the team at Klingenthal, but was replace by Bryan Fletcher. On Sunday, Billy hit his stride and took the top spot, making him a favorite for the up-coming World Championships. Johnny Spillane followed, in tenth place.

The Nordic Combined schedule at the World Championships in Liberec, CZ, shows four events: a mass start event on Thursday, then Sunday a normal hill Gundersen event, a four-man team event on Thursday and a large hill Gundersen on the final Saturday.

The U.S. started strong in the mass-start event with a gold medal by Todd Lodwick and a fifth place finish for Demong. See USST Story or FIS Results.

Todd and Billy made it even better two days later in the Normal Hill Gundersen event, posting a Gold and a Bronze. Todd led after the jumping and dueled with Jan Schmid until he pulled away with one km to go. Billy stormed past other racers, moving from 12th place to land on the podium. See USST Story or FIS Results.

In the Nordic Combined team competition on Thursday, a strange miscue led to disqualification of the U.S. Team. Bill Demong had placed his number-bib inside his suit but when he got to the top, the bib was nowhere to be found. He skied wearing a fore-jumper bib but after the jumping, the jury ruled to disqualify his scores. Bill discovered later that the bib had slid down inside his suit all the way to his ski boot. The team withdrew without running the cross country relay.

Saturday, in the final Nordic Combined event, the Large Hill Gundersen Sprint, Billy made up for his gaffe by taking the gold medal and completing the impossible U.S. sweep of the three individual events. Bill stood in eighth place after the jumping and started 52 seconds behind the jumping leader Chappuis but just eight seconds behind his most stubborn competitor Kircheisen. Billy worked his way up through the field, passing Kircheisen with two km to go and building a twelve second lead by the finish.

In an earlier paragraph, this writer questioned the wisdom of missing four World Cup events in order to prepare for the World Championships. I am now fully prepared to eat my words. The Championships were a fairy-tale week for the U.S. -- they could hardly have gone any better: three golds in Nordic Combined plus the first-ever World Championship in women's ski jumping. Congratulations to the winners and their support teams. You did it!

From Liberec, the Nordic Combined team traveled to Lahti, Finland for two days of competition where Billy continued his hot streak with a first and a third, solidifying his hold on third place in the World Cup points race. The season ends in Vikersund, Norway which replaces the traditional Holmenkollen Ski Week as the grand old Holmenkollen ski jump, the King's hill, undergoes a two year rebuild.

In the first Vikersund event, Billy stormed from 16th place after the jumping to finish second, ahead of Magnus Moan who had started 24th. Anssi Koivuranta won the jump by a huge margin, then held the lead to win the combined race. Moan turned in the fastest cross country time and Demong's time was second fastest.

In the final event of the season, Billy jumped to 17th place and began the cross country race with a 65 second gap to the leader Christof Bieler. As he has so often, Bill worked his way up through the field. Saturday he did the same but came short of catching the leader Koivuranta. Sunday Demong stormed all the way to the front, winning by ten seconds.

The final event of the season replaced the annual Holmenkollen Nordic Combined event and gave Billy the coveted King's Cup, one of the most highly prized awards in Nordic Combined skiing.

Billy finishes the World Cup season third on points, matching his historic podium finish of one year ago. In the 23-event season, he was on the podium ten times, including five gold medals. At the world championships, in the three individual events, Billy placed first, third and fifth. Adding to this excitement was Todd Lodwick who came out of retirement to win two world championships. Congratulations to Todd and Billy and all the rest of the team, the coaches and supporters. It was a historic season and we hope that next year will be even better.