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U.S. hoping to medal in biathlon, Nordic combined

Noah Trister
The Associated Press
Aspen, CO Colorado
U.S. biathlete looks at his targetTim Burke during a training session at the biathlon track Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Whistler, British Columbia, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
AP | AP

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – So you planned your weekend around Lindsey Vonn, and now she’s nowhere to be found. Her first event, the super-combined, is postponed because of the weather.

What’s an Olympic viewer to do?

Well, Sunday’s schedule still includes a five-time gold medalist from Norway – and a group of Americans making serious headway in two events traditionally dominated by Europe.



The biathlon and Nordic combined are afterthoughts in the U.S. – if they’re thought of at all – but that could change this year. NBC will broadcast some of each Sunday, a day that was supposed to be all about Vonn before her race was pushed back.

“We are not just medal hopefuls,” American Nordic combined skier Todd Lodwick said this week. “We are medal contenders.”




The U.S. has never won a medal in biathlon or Nordic combined, but the Americans are making serious progress. Lodwick and Billy Demong combined for three titles in Nordic combined at last year’s world championships, and biathlete Tim Burke has been near the top of the World Cup standings.

The first men’s biathlon event is the 10-kilometer sprint Sunday, and that will also be the first competition at the Vancouver Games for Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway. He’s won nine medals in his career, including five golds. Only three Winter Olympians have more medals, and countryman Bjorn Daehlie, a cross-country skier, holds the record of 12.

Bjoerndalen’s event includes cross-country skiing and rifle marksmanship. Biathletes have to ski as fast as they can, then calm down and shoot at a target. For every missed target, a biathlete must ski a penalty loop.

Bjoerndalen won a gold medal in 1998 and four more in 2002. He didn’t win any events at the Turin Games in 2006, but don’t assume he’s in decline. At last year’s world championships, he won three individual titles and anchored Norway’s winning relay team.

Burke finished 37th in the 10km at the 2006 Games, but he was ninth at the world championship in 2008 and 11th last year.

“It’s important for us to have good athletes from more and more nations,” Bjoerndalen said. “Hopefully we can have more races in the U.S. in the future. If we want to make the sport more interesting in the U.S., it is absolutely necessary to have guys like Tim Burke and other good athletes.”

In addition to Burke, Jay Hakkinen could also end up on the podium for the Americans.

Demong and Lodwick will make their bids in the Nordic combined, which couples cross-country skiing and ski jumping. Judges use the ski jump results to award the first starting position in the cross-country race, and the rest of the athletes are given staggered start times. The first athlete across the finish line takes the gold.

Competitors will jump on the normal hill Sunday, then race 10 kilometers.

Lodwick was the world champion in that format last year, and Demong finished third. Teammate Johnny Spillane was 16th, and he’s at these Olympics, too.

“From 15 years until now, we’ve gotten better and better,” said Spillane, a world champion in 2003 in a different Nordic combined event. “Now I feel like we’ve become one of the stronger teams.”

NBC had planned to feature Vonn in the super-combined in prime time Sunday, but the American standout is in limbo along with every other Alpine skier. Saturday’s men’s downhill was pushed back to Monday morning because of warm, wet weather that’s turned the slopes to mush. Sunday’s women’s super-combined met a similar fate.

NBC will make do with other events Sunday, such as the pairs figure skating short program in prime time. Earlier in the day, the network will show the biathlon and Nordic combined at Whistler – an opportunity for some of the lesser-known U.S. athletes to enjoy the spotlight.

“It’s kind of special when we sit down for a team meeting after we finished third, fourth and fifth, and we ask, ‘What went wrong?'” Demong said. “There are goals now and we do believe them.”