Americans ready to open season in Kuusamo on
Saturday
By John F. Russell
Steamboat Springs — It’s been eight long months
of training for the U.S. Nordic Combined Ski Team.
But on Saturday, the jumps and the results will
count as the World Cup tour returns for another
season.
U.S. Nordic
Combined skier Johnny Spillane, shown here
jumping in Steamboat, will be one of four
American athletes taking part in the opening
World Cup of the season in Kuusamo, Finland,
on Saturday. Spillane, Alex Glueck and Bill
Demong all have ties to Steamboat Springs.
Park City’s Eric Camerota also will be racing
in the one-jump, 10-kilometer race. Enlarge
photo
Steamboat’s Johnny Spillane
and Alex Glueck will join Bill Demong and Eric Camerota
in representing the American team at the first World
Cup Nordic combined event of the season in Kuusamo,
Finland.
“The boys are doing well, and everyone is healthy,”
American coach Dave Jarrett wrote in an e-mail Wednesday.
“It is always difficult to figure how everyone stacks
up going into the first competition of the season,
but the boys have done a tremendous job preparing
this summer and are chomping at the bit to start
competing.”
Last year, Spillane and Demong landed on the podium
in Kuusamo, which is located in the northern part
of Finland, where the sun shines for about four
hours each day during the winter. Spillane was second
in a two-jump, 15-kilometer Gundersen event, and
Demong placed third in a one-jump, 7.5-kilometer
sprint event.
But this fall, the team struggled to get back on
snow for early season training. The jumps in Park
City, Utah, and Steamboat Springs were unable to
open because of warm weather. This week is the first
time the athletes have been able to get on snow.
“We have had a couple days of jump training so far,”
Jarrett said. “These were the first jumps on snow,
so compared to the rest of the world, we’re a little
bit behind the eight ball. But we are here, and
we are ready to go.”
This year, the World Cup has adopted a new format
aimed to simplify the sport and make it more marketable
for television.
The format features one jump and a 10-kilometer
cross-country race and will not change during the
course of the season. There will be a mass-start
event at the World Championships.
The athletes are scheduled to take a provisional
jump on the HS142 hill Friday at the Ruka Ski Sport
Center located near Kuusamo. That jump will not
count in the final results unless conditions for
Saturday’s jumping event are unfavorable.
The first official jump will be held Saturday morning
and will be followed by the 10-kilometer cross-country
race in the afternoon.
A second one-jump, 10-kilometer race combination
will be held Sunday afternoon as the World Cup season
shifts into high gear.
The American team is scheduled to travel to events
in Trondheim in Norway, Liberec in the Czech Republic
and Ramsau in Austria before Christmas.
The rest of the U.S. Team will continue to train
at home. Those athletes will compete on the Continental
Cup (formally known as the World Cup B), which is
scheduled to open in Park City on Dec. 13 and 14.
“We just plan to focus on the process and let the
results take care of themselves,” Jarrett said.
“These guys are pros, and they know when they are
on, that is good enough to stand on the top of the
podium on any given day.”
