From the ashes of out-of-reach expectations of Salt Lake City and frustrating finishes in Turin, the U.S. Nordic combined team has morphed into a world power in a sport long dominated by Europeans.
Behind world champions Todd Lodwick, the only five-time U.S. Olympic skier, and four-time Olympians Billy Demong and Johnny Spillane, the Americans are heavily favored to win their first Olympic medals in Vancouver.
All were on the 2002 relay team that narrowly missed a medal in Salt Lake City, finishing fourth. Since stumbling in the Italian Alps, the Americans have put their maturity, experience and improved training methods to good use, scaling World Cup podiums on a regular basis in Nordic combined - ski jumping followed by a brutal race of speed over a cross-country track.
Once hopelessly behind the Germans, Austrians, Russians, Norwegians and Finns, the U.S. Nordic combined ski team stunned those teams with its domination of last year's world championships in Liberec, Czech Republic.
Lodwick and Spillane, both of Steamboat Springs, Colo., and Demong, of Vermontville, N.Y., followed up that breakthrough with more World Cup circuit triumphs this winter.
``We're consistently fighting for the top spot every weekend in every spot that we go to,'' Lodwick said. ``So, you know, we take that confidence to the Olympic Games.''
There they must contend with Jason Lamy Chappuis of France and Norway's Magnus Moan.
``It gives me goose bumps to think about where we're standing, on the precipice of what we could possibly achieve,'' head coach Dave Jarrett said. ``It's not going to require anything super. It's not going to require anything special. All it's going to require is for those guys to do their normal competitions.''
That's how far the Americans have come: To put medals around their necks, they'll just have to keep from faltering.
``We know we're good enough to fight for medals, as individuals and as a team,'' Demong said. ``So, it's less so trying to make ourselves believe that we can and just kind of knowing that we can and hoping that we do.''
Injuries and inconsistency dogged the Americans four years ago in Turin.
``We were still sort of trying to believe that we could do it,'' Demong said. ``These Games are a lot different. We're veteran athletes.''
That experience showed up at the world championships last year when the Americans could have swept all four gold medals but were disqualified from the four-man relay when Demong couldn't find his bib when they got to the top of the jump hill.
Not five minutes after being denied the chance to compete, he found it tucked between his suit and one of his boots.
``If you were to go back to 2002 or Torino, that might have been a fatal blow to our team,'' Demong said. ``By the time I got to the bottom of the hill, I felt crushed. I felt like I let our team down, but when I walked into our cabin, Johnny just starting laughing. And then Todd walked in, and I was kind of nervous. Todd had just won two medals and was gunning for his third. But he came up and gave me a big hug. He said, 'Screw this. Let's go watch this on TV and get ready for Saturday.'''
Demong won his first world title 48 hours later.
All three now look back on that moment as one of truth and don't worry about a repeat of the bib blunder at Whistler.
``It's a team rule,'' Lodwick explained. ``You have to have the bib around your shoulders before you even get on the lift now.''
