Word: nordics
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...1990s, where did Nordic combined sit in America's Winter Olympic hierarchy? "We were at the bottom of the barrel," says Tom Steitz, the U.S. Nordic combined coach from 1980 to 2002. "We owned last place." Over the past decade, Steitz has led the push to snare more funding for the obscure sport, which mixes ski jumping and cross-country skiing. But he recalls the days in which Nordic combined athletes trekked through Europe like broke college students, sleeping in elementary school gyms, piling into tiny rental cars like circus clowns, begging other countries to drive their skis to events...
...Steitz's creditors accept Olympic medals as collateral? Prior to these Olympics, the U.S. had never won an Olympic medal in Nordic combined, a sport that has been contested in the Games since 1924. Countries like Norway (the sport's namesake), Finland and Germany have dominated the event. But to borrow a phrase from the host country of the Vancouver Olympics, the Americans now own the podium. Thanks in part to an infusion of coaches, technicians, physiologists and other ski specialists devoted to the team in recent years, Johnny Spillane on Feb. 14 clinched the first American Olympic medal...
...Nordic combined, the sport with the terribly unsexy name, started in mid-19th century Norway. It is an anomaly in the Winter Olympics because it mixes two wildly different disciplines. Yes, both ski jumpers and cross-country racers wear skis. But other than that, you might as well mix ice dancing with speedskating and call it a day. Cross-country racing requires extreme endurance, while ski jumping requires insanity. "It is kind of stupid," says Finland's Janne Ryynaenen of the odd combination. Ryynaenen nailed the longest leap of the day, 138.5 m from the takeoff, during the ski-jumping...
...There's a 2½-hr. break between the two events. "You put on your jump hat for a few hours, and as soon as jumping is over, you go snort down a sandwich and put on your cross-country gear," says Bill Demong, a member of the U.S. Nordic combined team who is competing in his third Olympics. (See TIME's complete coverage of the 2010 Winter Games...
...Crimson Nordic women’s success this past weekend went right over your head, don’t worry about it. It’ll happen again soon enough...