Vancouver 2010: Nordic Combined

Ok, last Olympic post. And for me the most exciting day. Adam did a great job here of putting to words our entire Olympic adventure but on this post you will hear about our day watching the Nordic Combined Team event.

We went up to Whistler to see the Team event for Nordic Combined. Nordic Combined is a combination of ski jumping and cross country skiing. It's a strange combination of two sports. The distance and style points for a jumper are then converted into time for the skiers. So the number one jumper leaves for the x-country first (different skis), the next jumper is a certain amount of seconds behind the first skier. Whoever wins the x-country is the overall winner. Sometimes the best jumpers are not the best skiers, therefore it can really change once the x-country skiing gets going. For those of you who don't know, NC is very close to my heart for many reasons. I grew up around it, doing it, watching it, and supporting my brother doing it. When I was little my brother and I both competed in NC through the Andover Outing Club. I stopped somewhere around middle school. Jed kept going. And he excelled in it. After high school he went to train full time for the US Ski team. He skied and was teammates with almost all of the current Olympic team. In 1999, he, Johnny Spillane, Billy Demong, and Carl VanLoan won the team event at Junior Worlds. Two of these guys were competing when we went to watch, Johnny and Billy. Earlier in the Olympics Johnny became the first American to get an Olympic medal since the beginning of the Olympics. American's used to be at the bottom of the results for years, until the last 10 years, where they have started to climb to the podium at world events. They were going to be contenders for another medal in the team event.

It was so fun to be going to see something that I know and have been around so much of my childhood. We also decided to take Corbin with us on this day. We thought he would have a lot of fun seeing everything. It would be a long day but we hoped he would do well. As soon as we got off the bus and were going through security, Adam noticed Billy's mom. We went to re-introduce ourselves and wish them luck. Because we had Corbin with us, we got some special treatment and got a ride the shuttle up to the ski jumps instead of walk the mile uphill. We got to the jumps and instantly saw Johnny's family and a bunch of other US supporters. We went and said hello. It was so fun to be amongst such an enthusiastic crowd cheering for Americans!

Corbin had so much fun just being able to run around. Because there weren't seats, Corbin could just run around and play in the snow. He loved waving the flag around and running in circles.

Volunteers smoothing out the landing hill of the jumps. When we were little we would have to "pack" the jumps by all wearing our skis and packing down the landing hill instead of having it groomed. Then they would rake it out after the jumpers.

Getting into the American spirit.

Towards the end of the jumps Corbin was tired! He just looked at the pack and said "in pack". And put his head down and fell asleep within a few minutes. He slept through all of us screaming and cheering on Billy and Johnny.

After the jumps the US was in 2nd place, only 2 seconds behind Finland. Yahoo!

Corbin managed to stay asleep on our shuttle ride and for a total of about 45 minutes before he woke up, just as it started snowing. After that he wanted to get out and play again. We had almost 2 hours between events, so we had plenty of time to play around before the x-country started.

We found a hill and he just started sliding down on his bottom. He was having so much fun. There were some contests and other big things going on behind us, but he didn't care, he was just having the best time sliding. Then we found an empty plastic bottle and started playing snow soccer, kicking it between peoples legs and saying "goal!"

We were able to get right on the fence as the racers came into the stadium. We were under the flags where we could still see the big screen, for when they went out of view.

The race was so exciting and we were cheering so loud during it, that we didn't take any pictures of the x-country race. We were shaking out cow bells and waving our flag and screaming, "GO BRETT, GO TODD, GO JOHNNY, GO BILLY!!!! GO USA!!!!" At one point, Corbin was not as happy so as he was screaming out of frustration, we were screaming out of excitement. Right at the finish, he started to get really fussy, but a banana seemed the exact fix for him.

Billy was the last American skier for the team. The US stayed in 2nd or 1st place the whole time. On the last leg it was Billy and an Austrian. Billy tried to take the lead on the last hill but his skis just weren't quite fast enough and the Austrian passed him as they came into the stadium. We were cheering so loudly. The Americans got a silver medal!!! It was so exciting. We stayed after the race to go to the flower ceremony.

I actually got all teary as they came to get their flowers. I think I know what is must have been like for their families, as I have been a family member before. To know how hard the athletes work and how much their families support them. It's truly amazing. And to "know" these guys. They are my brothers good friends!

Brett Camerota, Todd Lodwick, Johnny Spillane, and Billy Demong.
Wow! I was so proud to be an American supporter of NC that day! It was an amazing Olympics for the US NC team. In their last event, Billy won gold and Johnny got his third silver!

It was such a fun day. Corbin was such a trooper. He did really well, considering we left the house at 5:20am and didn't get home till 8:15 pm, and two long bus rides and lots of stimulus. It will be a day I will remember forever. Good job Vancouver! Good job Americans! Good job Nordic Combined!