BACK to BACK

Pre-meet press conference with Deedee Corradini, and parents of Sarah Hendrickson and Jessica Jerome.

The women made history last night (actually night before last now... missed a day)... sadly Shaun White tanked and US won a bronze in women's luge so nobody in the USA got to hear about it in prime time (was shown live on NBCSN).  The show was originally slated for 4 segments in PT, then dropped to 3 as the US hopes looked bleaker and in the end found the cutting room floor when Shaun and USA luge had their big days.  The evening started off with a press conference that included Women's Ski Jumping President, Deedee Corradini and the parents of Sarah Hendrickson and Jessica Jerome.  AP, ESPN, USA TODAY, New York Times, truly the world was listening to a pretty inspirational message about how pleased these parents were to have the women included and that they could care less who took home the medals... all the women had won.  

All 5' of Sara Takanashi who was favored, looked good, but came up 4th.  

Side story was the mother of Sara Takanashi (17 year old JPN jumper who was supposed to win) coming up to Deedee in the hotel they shared and, through an interpreter, thanking Deedee profusely for leading the charge that got women's ski jumping into the Olympics.  Waves of emotion everywhere that night expressed most deeply perhaps by surprise winner Carina Vogt of Germany who basically sobbed openly for 5-10 minutes after clinching gold.  Her interview never made air... it was 20 minutes after the moment and she was still very emotional and (admittedly in a second language) had a hard time finding any words, never mind the right ones.  American Lindsey Van said she did a good deal of crying as she walked and soaked in the opening ceremonies.  Americans Jerome 10th, Van 15th, Hendrickson 21st.  It's been a long battle for these women... but they put on a great show and have certainly arrived.

Booth before women's event- Bob and Nils.

I committed one of the NBC's 5 Cardinal Sins during Sarah Hendrickson's jump throwing everything but the pom poms at the screen with a "GO SARAH" as she came over the knoll on her 2nd jump.  Not sure where that came from but cheer leading strictly verboten.  Had the show made prime time my compatriots in the truck had been kind enough to scrub the line from version that was sent to the IBC.  In this digital age I am assured that this will turn up again to haunt at some point.

SOCHI PRIMER- Discerning paper towels from toilet paper in Sochi.  Paper towels on the left... no, actually on the right... damn. it's tough to tell from this distance.

Normal hill Nordic combined yesterday and things beginning to go a little more smoothly with the coverage.  Americans had trained poorly on the hill and did not do themselves any big favors in the competition.  Todd Lodwick used the comp to get another two training jumps before heading to the large hill.  He's now had a total of +/- 8 jumps since wrecking his shoulder in a fall in France in January.  He did not ski the XC portion event and is putting all focus on getting ready for the team event; an event where the US tok silver in 2010 and bronze at 2013 world championships last year.  Based on yesterday's results they will be hard pressed to be anywhere near the podium.

Chad and Al in for the XC portion of NC

 The XC portion of NC is held at the jump venue (a first in Olympic hestory) so the NBC XC team of Chad and Al came in for the call.  I managed to get out into the stands to watch with the Krass family whose daughter, Julia, made the slope style team (at 16!).  Julia (and the Krass fam) are soaking it all in and it was great to have a couple of hours to share stories.

In the stands with Krass fam from Hanover for NC XC!

Beautiful day (again) for an event and was tapped on the shoulder by Jens Weissflog who was also in the stands.  Jens won gold and silver in 1984 and gold again in 1994; one of the few skiers who won old style and then made the transition to V style to win again.  He owns a hotel in (East) Germany and now speaks perfect English.  Back before the wall came down the East German skiers were always friendly on the hill but tough to reach on a social level.  If they came out to a bar they seldom drank, preferring to keep their precious western tages geld (day money from the tournament host- maybe $10-$20/day) for something more meaningful than beers.  Like maybe a hotel someday.  Jens was with a big German crowd (and his new girl friend) and had plenty to cheer about when country-mate Eric Frenzel won gold in NH Nordic combined. 

Ran into Jens Weissflug (East) German jumper who won gold and silver in '84 SJ (and much more).

Lat night at the AUT House... to be continued.