Nordic Combined: America's
Bill Demong wins Nordic Combined gold
Olympic veteran Bill Demong
capped the United States' impressive Nordic Combined
campaign at the Vancouver Games by winning the large
hill gold medal on Thursday.
Fellow American Johnny Spillane took silver, his
third of the Games, with Austria's Bernhard Gruber
claiming bronze.
Two days after anchoring the US to silver in the
team event, Demong becomes the United States' first
ever Olympic Nordic champion.
Spillane was second in the normal hill event behind
Frenchman Jason Lamy-Chappuis and also won silver
in the team event on Tuesday.
Winning four from a possible nine medals, the United
States has emerged the big winner in an event which
is usually dominated by Scandinavians and Europeans.
A delighted Demong said it had been the result of
years of hard work.
"I think it has been building over the past
five to 10 years. We knew we had three guys who
could medal on any given day," he said, admitting
Spillane had provided the initial momentum.
"What started it off was Johnny's silver."
It couldn't have been a better finale for the Americans,
who have been buzzing with confidence since Spillane's
silver in the normall hill.
However some will argue that the unfortunate circumstances
surrounding Thursday's ski jump doomed the prospects
of other favourites, such as Lamy-Chappuis.
The Frenchman was among the 31 athletes who completed
their scheduled jump, only for it to be cancelled
and rescheduled due to poor weather.
While Lamy-Chappuis' first jump was good, his second
left him way down in 29th place with over two minutes
to make up on Gruber.
"It's like a lottery, some guys got good conditions,
and other guys got bad conditions," the Frenchman
said after his second, less successful, jump.
"It's clearly not like an Olympic competiton,
it's a shame."
Spillane meanwhile finished second behind Gruber
to start just 34s behind the Austrian. Demong, who
placed sixth in the ski jump, started the race a
further 12s behind his teammate.
By the midway point of the 10km race the American
pair had worked together to charge down Gruber's
lead and Demong was afforded a crucial rest by Spillane
before attacking the Austrian in the final kilometre.
Spillane's chances of gold took a blow when he fell
on the last lap. He eventually finished four seconds
behind Demong to win the silver with ease ahead
of Gruber.
"It made it a little bit harder (to win gold)
but that was all my fault. I went too fast around
that corner," said Spillane.
"When we got about halfway through the race
it was pretty clear we have a chance to have two
medals, we just didn't know what colour."
Gruber meanwhile was satisfied with the bronze.
"It's a dream come true. I had a really good
jump, I was lucky I had not great conditions but
not as bad as the others," said the Austrian.
"When you are at the Olympics everything has
to be in place and everything must be clear and
perfect."
