Growing up in Steamboat Springs, Ben Berend fell in love with nordic combined at age 7. He fondly remembers schools closing so kids could watch Todd Lodwick and other hometown heroes compete in World Cup events at historic Howelsen Hill, where kids have learned ski jumping for 100 years.
The crowning achievement for U.S. nordic combined — a dual event involving ski jumping and cross country racing that has been part of the Olympic program since 1924 — came when the team won . That became Berend’s goal.
“When I saw Bill win that gold medal, I knew, ‘This is what I’m doing,’ ” said Berend, 19. “I was so motivated. It was so cool to see someone who went through the same program as me succeed.”
Olympic glory is still his goal, but his dream took a body blow this past spring when the U.S. Ski Team cut funding to nordic combined. Coach Dave Jarrett informed Berend.
“I get a call from Dave saying: ‘We got cut. We are not part of the U.S. Ski Team anymore,’ ” Berend said. “That crushed me. My whole goal is, I want to be on the U.S. Ski Team.”
Jarrett, a native of Denver and a two-time Olympian before he moved into coaching, had to make a lot of calls like that.
“That was tough to explain to kids in Steamboat, kids in Park City (Utah),” Jarrett said. “Parents were asking, ‘Well, why wouldn’t we just play soccer now?’ “
There are only three full-sized ski jumps in the U.S — in Steamboat, Park City and Lake Placid, N.Y. — which is one reason nordic combined finds itself in this predicament. There aren’t a lot of athletes in the sport, maybe 500 in all.
But the news was heartbreaking in Steamboat, which has a rich tradition in nordic skiing and nurtured the nordic combined team in its worst-to-best development. Brothers Bryan and Taylor Fletcher of Steamboat form the core of the current elite team along with Demong, and Jarrett sees Berend as a talented prospect to join them.
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association always faces reduced budgets in post-Olympic years, forcing hard choices. As new snow sports are added to the Olympic program, the USSA gets stretched thinner. Its announced goal, “Best in the World,” means aiming to win the most medals in skiing and snowboarding at the Olympics, which it achieved in 2010. The U.S. finished second in Sochi this year to Norway.
“That’s probably our main core challenge as a national team,” said Luke Bodensteiner, vice president for athletics. “Compared to the nations we aspire to compete against, we’re financial underdogs in virtually every area we compete in. That forces us into a position where we’ve got to make tough choices, and we’ve got to be very clever and very specific about how we allocate out what are scarce resources.”
Initially, the USSA cut all support except $40,000 to fund travel for the Fletcher brothers this winter. Facing an outcry within the ski community, the USSA looked for ways to help nordic combined help itself.
The USSA advanced nordic combined $150,000 in the form of 15 Gold Passes — transferable ski passes good at any U.S. ski area for the 2014-15 season — but obligated nordic combined to recoup that $150,000 by selling the passes at $10,000 each.
As a result the top nordic combined athletes will be able to travel on the World Cup this season with coaches and ski technicians, and they will compete at the biennial world championships, but they spent much of the offseason pursuing sponsorships and soliciting donations in a fight for survival.
“We are not only full-time athletes and coaches, but now also we’ve become full-time fund- raisers,” Jarrett said. “That is now the new reality. If we want to keep it going, it’s completely up to us.”
Demong, who has won four medals at the world championships and two at the Olympics, courted potential sponsors in Europe last month. Being a five-time Olympian at age 34, he’s back for another season in part to prevent the program’s demise.
“The only reason I’m still around at this point is to make sure that there is a future,” said Demong, who is running in Sunday’s New York City Marathon. “I spent a lot of my time this summer and fall fundraising, and have turned that focus the last month and a half toward trying to find viable, sustainable sponsorship.
“I feel partially indebted because I was given the opportunity to do something that allowed me to reach the pinnacle of my athletic career, probably the thing that will be put on my tombstone. That’s the thing I want to be able to perpetuate. Looking back at this 10 years from now, I want to say I left the sport as good or better than I found it.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616, jmeyer@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johnmeyer
The U.S. nordic combined program is endangered. A look at its history:
1988: Tom Steitz of Steamboat Springs takes over as head coach one day after the U.S. nordic combined finishes last at the Calgary Olympics.
1993: Steitz tells nordic combined athletes who do not live in Steamboat that they must move there to train together in a team environment.
1994: Steamboat’s Todd Lodwick competes in his first Olympics. Later that year Steamboat hosts its first World Cup event and Lodwick scores his first World Cup podium in a relay with Ryan Heckman.
1995: Lodwick scores his first World Cup win — in his hometown.
1998: Lodwick wins at Holmenkollen in Norway, the most hallowed venue in the sport.
2002: U.S. finishes fourth in the team event at Salt Lake Olympics; Bill Demong of Vermontville, N.Y., claims his first World Cup win, Steamboat’s Johnny Spillane claims first World Cup podium; U.S. Ski Team moves team to Park City, Utah, Steitz resigns. Steamboat’s eight-year run as a World Cup host ends — the U.S. has not hosted the World Cup since.
2003: Spillane claims gold medal at world championships, the first for an American.
2007: Demong wins world championships silver.
2009: Lodwick wins two gold medals at world championships, Demong claims gold and bronze.
2010: Demong wins Olympic gold medal, Spillane takes two individual silver and U.S. claims silver in four-man team event.
2012: Steamboat’s Bryan Fletcher claims first World Cup win at historic Holmenkollen.
2013: U.S. takes bronze medal in team event at world championships; Steamboat’s Taylor Fletcher claims first World Cup podium.
2014: U.S. shut out at Sochi Olympics, U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association cuts funding drastically.
John Meyer, The Denver Post
