(Last updated Dec. 8, 2009)
The World Cup season for 2009-10 started again in Kuusamo but for some reason the U.S. Team
consisting of Bill Demong, Johnny Spillane, Brett Camerota, and Bryan Fletcher passed up the opener and headed headed straight for Norway. The plan was to train in Lillehammer before traveling to Trondheim for the second week of World Cup competition. However, due to "technical problems" in Trondheim, the Norwegian meet, both Jumping and Nordic Combined competition, was moved to Lillehammer. The following weekend, Dec. 12-13, the traveling circus was supposed to go to Harrachov CZE for a team event plus an individual Gundersen race, but Europe has no snow so the meet was cancelled. Double World Champion Todd Lodwick began his season with two thumping wins in Continental Cup competitions in Park City, then joined the gang in Europe. The individual Gundersen event scheduled for Zakopane was moved to Dec. 18 in Ramsau, AUT, and Lodwick continued his good skiing jumping to a sixth place tie, then wearing bib 7, he moved to the front in the cross country race. In the final kilometers, Todd battled several others to finish sixth. Johnny Spillane and Bill Demong didn't jump as well but stormed up through the field to finish seventh and tenth, respectively. Bryan Fletcher rounded out the U.S. contingent placing 50th. Spillane moved up three spots in World Cup points and now sits in eighth place, while Demong moved from 20th to 17th.
Saturday in Ramsau, Chappuis (FRA) continued on his hot skiing, grabbing his fourth gold in six World cup events. Johnny placed fourth, Todd sixth, Billy nineth and Brett Camerota 18th. Spillane moved up another place to seventh in World Cup standings, with Bill and Todd moved up to 16th and 18th, respectively. From Ramsau, the boys headed home for for Olympic trials and a brief Christmas break. Johnny Spillane iced his ticket to the Vancouver Olympics by winning the Nordic Combined Gold Cup Olympic Trials in his hometown of Steamboat Springs, CO. Lodwick and Demong followed close behind but the three superstars left the rest of the field over two minutes back. After Christmas, it was back to Europe and the World cup circuit. The first stop was in Oberhof, Germany, where Johnny Spillane stepped it up from very good to spectacular. On Saturday, Johnny scored his third fouth-place finish, then on Sunday he put it all together and won his first World Cup event. Spillane was in close second place after the jumping and he passed the leader early in the cross country race and never looked back, winning by over half a minutes. The two high placings vaulted him from ninth to fourth place in World Cup points. Bill Demong placed thirteenth in the jumping on both days and on Saturday, he moved up to eigth in the race, but on Sunday he moved up as high as fourth place before fading back to 13th. Next stop was Val di Fiemme, site of Spillane's greatest victory, his 2003 World Championship. The top three U.S. skiers all jumped well enough to join a huge racing group of 16 skiers all in a five second interval. The bunch broke up just a bit in the final kilometer with Spillane finishing fourth in the sprint, Lodwick sixth and Demong eighth. Bill and Todd each moved up in season points, but Spillane was bumped down from fourth to fifth to trail Frenzel by a single point. Sunday was a historic day for the U.S. Nordic Combined team with Bill Demong winning and Todd Lodwick finishing second. Unbelieveably enough, it could have been even better as Todd and Billy were working for Johnny Spillane in the cross country race, pushing the pace and dropping racer after racer off the back of the lead group. However calamity struck when Lodwick stepped on and broke Spillane's ski pole. Skiing with a single pole, Spillane slid back through the field to finish 22nd, good enough to keep his fifth place position in World Cup points. Demong jumped up from 13th to 9th in points, while Lodwick moved up to 13th. Jan 16 in Chaux-Neuve, France was a great day for Team USA, with Todd grabbing the bronze with Johnny and Billy following in 5th and 6th places, respectively. All three jumped well, finishing in 7th, 5th and 10th place, respectively, but only four seconds separated their three start times so it was easy to link up early in the cross country race and work together. The three Americans pushed the pace, swapping leads to make the race fast and hard. In the end, Magnus Moan (NOR) and Jason Lamy-Chappuis (FRA) pulled ahead for the gold and silver. Nineteen year old Taylor Fletcher finished in 39th place. Spillane held his fifth place in World Cup points but closed up on the two competitors ahead of him. Demong also crept closer to the two the athletes just above him, while Lodwick jumped up two more places to 11th. Sunday in Chaux-Neuve, Bill Demong jumped to nineth place, then put in the second fastest cross country race to move up to fourth but Norway's Magnus Moan was not to be denied as he raced from 14th starting spot, passing the French favorite, Jason Lamy-Chappuis in the last two kilometers to win his second World Cup event in a row. Todd Lodwick's 21st place in jumping left him too much to do, and Johnny Spillane appeared to have an off day in the cross country. (Todd 13th, Johnny 16th). Brett Camerota finished in 35th place. After the Chaux-Neuve competitions the A-Team (Todd, Bill, Johnny, and perhaps the Camerota twins) came back to the U.S. to prepare for the Vancouver Olympic events. However, four younger competitors, Bryan Fletcher, Taylor Fletcher, Alex Miller and Nick Hendrickson, went on to Schonach to continue World Cup competition with an individual Gundersen sprint Saturday (see results) and a Team Relay on Sunday (see results). The Olympics started well for the U.S. Nordic Combined team. The first event was the Normal Hill (K-95) Gundersen Sprint, where Johnny Spillane took the silver medal. Todd Lodwick followed in fourth place and Bill Demong stormed up through the field to finish sixth. Another silver medal followed in the Team Sprint event as Brett Camerota joined Todd, Johnny and Billy to jump well and then stay at or near the front throughout the race. In the end, Billy was nipped by Mario Stecher as Austria defended its gold medal status in the team event from 2006.Finally, in the individual Large Hill event, Johnny started second and not far behind, Billy started sixth. The two U.S. stars blasted to the front where they joined the top jumper, Bernhard Gruber, then took turns pushing the pace to wear out the Austrian, while Todd Lodwick did what he could back in a huge following pack to slow down the chase. The teamwork succeeded as Billy went to the front and held on for the gold while Johnny got up from a brief fall, passed Gruber and grabbed his third silver medal of the Games. That evening, after the medal ceremony, Billy publicly proposed marriage to his long-time girlfriend Katie Koczynski (read more) and a few days later, Billy was chosen to carry the U.S. flag as the athletes marched into the closing ceremonies. Here's the final tally of U.S. Nordic Combined accomplishments at the Vancouver Games:
Following the Vancouver Games, the top team came back to the U.S. while B-teamers Taylor and Bryan Fletcher, Alex Miller and Nick Hendrickson traveled to Europe to continue World Cup competition. After hitting the TV circuit, Billy Demong joined several other local Olympians in a welcome-back party in Saranac Lake.
Table columns give the venue location and the date of the event, and in the right-hand columns, we will post Bill Demong's finish place, the World Cup points earned for that placing, link "US" to the USST news story and link "FIS" to the official FIS results page. That results page includes, in the upper-right corner, a list of available files including: jump results, World Cup standings, Nations Cup standings, money standings, start lists, etc. The USST article usually describes the weather conditions and how the race went for Bill and the rest of the U.S. World Cup competitors.
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