Bill Demong is skiing better than any U.S. nordic combined skier has done before, but as he pursues an unprecedented yet increasingly realistic goal — becoming the first American to win a nordic combined season title in the World Cup — he’s also thinking about the future of the sport.
While excelling in an obscure discipline of skiing that combines jumping and cross country, Demong wants to make sure there is talent in the pipeline whenever he and Johnny Spillane retire. Demong and Spillane, a native of Steamboat Springs, are the only Americans to win medals at the nordic combined world championships.
“Johnny and I both look at this like, whether we ski one more year — obviously we’re both focused on Vancouver (the 2010 Olympics) — or for three, four more years, it’s not about us,” Demong said. “It’s about continuing to promote development, and to keep kids coming into the sport. There has to be something put in place to ensure that more development continues to happen through the nordic combined community.”
Midway through the season, Demong has been on the podium five times. No other American has been on the podium five times in an entire season.
But keeping the U.S. team stocked with talent isn’t easy. The only jumping programs of any consequence in the U.S. are in Steamboat Springs, Park City, Utah, and the Lake Placid complex in upstate New York, where Demong got his start.
Last summer, Demong took it upon himself to fund and host a development camp in Steamboat. That got the attention of Kerry Lynch, an outstanding nordic combined skier from the 1980s. Now Lynch is leading what has been called the “U.S. Nordic Combined Support Campaign.” Contributions can be made through the Yampa Valley Community Foundation (www.yvcf.org).
“Kerry Lynch has taken on the de facto leadership in fundraising,” Demong said. “For want of a less-selfless word, if there was a legacy I felt like I could leave, it would be to promote nordic combined and to see the success we’ve enjoyed over the last couple of decades continue (or) get even better.”
I believe Demong deserves the U.S. Olympic Committee’s “Rings of Gold” award, which goes to individuals and programs who help children develop Olympic dreams. But Demong is hunting a less subjective prize: the World Cup title. In a tight race involving five skiers, he is in second place behind Germany’s Ronny Ackerman.
“The overall is obviously the big goal this year,” Demong said. “I set the overall as my big goal, like, ‘If everything goes right, I’ll have a chance, and that’s what I want to shoot for.’ It’s pretty tight. It’s easy to look up the list and say, ‘I’m not that far behind,’ but it’s easy to look behind and go, ‘There’s three guys who are one or two good comps away.’ ”
Demong has been able to multiply his career podium count by 50 percent in one season in part because of the way an endurance athlete’s motor matures. But he also credits a growing interest in offseason cycling.
“I started three years ago,” Demong said. “It was a good way to put some miles on, and I skied a little faster. Two years ago I started racing, raced probably 10 to 12 times. I ended up skiing a little faster. This (past) year I raced close to 20 times, and I ended up skiing the fastest times in August at summer Grand Prix. I started in (the World Cup opener) with the second-fastest time, and I’ve been clocking my best times since.”
This summer, Demong will race on a cycling team, and he hopes to qualify for the Tour of Utah.
“I really feel like bike racing has become a really complementary training exercise, and it’s a really good sanity tool for me in the summer,” Demong said. “I really like to race, and the opportunity to race is the best training I can do.
“Everyone talks about overtraining. I think of it more as under-recovery. As long as I take the steps to ensure I’m able to get quality training and quality rest, it’s been a boost to my cross country skiing.”
The World Cup standings bear that out.
