Cashing the check

US Nordic combined team took the silver yesterday. Many emotions and thoughts on this one... chief among them what a beautiful job the coaches did in seeding the event and- especially- what a great job the athletes did in delivering in their assigned roles to the point where the silver medal looked easy. The importance of Brett Camerota's big jump to kick things off can not be overstated. There was HEAVY weight on his shoulders, particularly as the youngest and least decorated of the team, to start the momentum rolling. He did. He made things easy for Todd, who followed (big), which in turn made it easier for Billy and Johnny. Brett did equally well as the first seeded skier in the XC portion as well, moving ahead of the Finns and maintaining a decent portion of the lead that the US held over the rest of the pack after the jumping. In the end AUT took the gold. Billy D in final leg vs Mario Stecher of AUT trading the lead and neck and neck as they crested the last hill and came into the stadium. Stecher's skis were clearly faster coming down the hill and Billy toasted from a couple of failed attempts to bury Mario before the stadium. Valliant efforts but Stecher (on great skis) wouldn't let it happen.

Other genius move by coaches was focusing Camerota's xc training on a 5k distance. We saw Brett fall from 10th in the jumping on the NH individual event (where they ski 10k) down to 30-something. In the team event he was full on for the 5K. He should be around for Sochi and can go for an individual medal in 2014.

Cell phone rang immediately after the finish- Doug Peterson from Hawaii who'd set the satellite dish to pick up a live Euro feed and knew the results. Doug,the head coach of the Nordic combined team back in 1988 when I was their jumping coach- so proud of what they'd done and wanting to be sure his congratulations made it to the coaches and athletes. No one on this year's team would have been out of grade school in '88 but Doug clearly tracking the lineage of efforts that were put in motion before us- Steve Gaskill, Walter Malmquist, Pat Ahern, Kerry Lynch- and were carried on after by folks like Alan Johnson, Tom Steitz, Rob Powers, Lasse Ottesen, Bard Elden, Greg Poirier, Dave Jarrett, Corby Fisher, and many, many, more. It has been a long road getting the Nordic combined program to where it is and it was interesting for me to see how easy this year's team made it look.

Paul Robbins another person who should have been here to witness and record the event as well. Son DC (here working xc stats for NBC) and I sharing a hug to toast him before the xc portion and DC pointing out that Paul was there: his signature tam sitting with the best view in stadium in the NBC xc call booth between Al Trautwig and Chad Samela.

Jean Seguin scored tickets for the medal ceremony for Chris and me. Cold drizzly night, not the kind of night you wanted to be out in, but very glad I did. Wow. The organizers do a wonderful job of making the moment, and of course watching the US guys get their silvers was moving. One of those moments where TV can not capture the moment as it's not action but emotion, invisible to the camera. Videos below are of Stecher/Billy finishing and US getting medals. The Fray playing after the medals but not able to stick around for that as I joined Bob Babinski and a few fellow Canadians involved in either CAN TV or CAN Olympic Committee where discussion ranged from whether Tiger would will ever win a Masters again (Bob- no, the rest of the table- yes) to Vancouver 2010's effect on Canadian patriotism (they seem to envy ours, the effects of which- US patriotism- have often been an embarrasment for me) and whether it will serve as a pivot point in CAN culture (general agreement- no), to costs/benefits of contact sports. Alot covered over only 2 beers. Met the mom of Margaus Sharp who's a freshman (no. 2) on Dartmouth's womens hockey team. An excuse to become a fan.

TV stuff called live and sloppy (by me, not Matt). Shifting wind wreaking havoc with timing and Jeff breaking the CARDINAL rule of NBC in using (twice, I believe) the term "we" when referring to the Americans (I'm supposed to be a journalist, not a cheerleader). Thanks to producer Kaare Numme who with very little time to turn things around, managed to wipe my gaffes. All good.