Day 4: Nordic Combined

If Saturday was the absolute most miserable weather for spectators, then Sunday felt like it was dream. There was no rain, no sleet, no wind, and there was plenty of food and space. It was such a relief! Dina and I had a few hours of sleep before we had to get up to Whistler Creekside (we got home from the moguls even at midnight, then had to be at the shuttle at 5:30, meaning we got up around 4:30am) The shuttle ride to Creekside was so nice, we had the roomy tour buses (vs the city/shuttle buses), so we were able to get some much needed sleep the ~2 hours that it took to get out there for the 10am competition start time.

Whistler is absolutely beautiful! To get to the site you get to hike up a gentle trail that leads you through the trees, over a beautiful creek and up to the mountain. Along the way, we passed a few art exhibits such as a totem pole carver and a snow sculpture team from Saskatchewan. We talked snow building and I admired his case of tools.

The venue itself was put together so much better than the Cypress one. After we got

there we immediately bought some rain gear in

hopes that Murphy's Law would thus keep the rain away (if you have rain gear, you won't need rain gear. . . . .) After that we also got some food since Cypress had run out (although that wasn't a concern at this site, since it seemed to be so much better prepared) I had o.j. and a sausage while Dina had salmon chowder - yes, the breakfast of champions at 8am. We got a fantastic spot along the fence, right where the athletes walk pass to go back up the mountain. There was one round of practice/warm-up jumps, so all 45 men went past us. I got to see a whole lot of ski jumping that day!

The crowd was different this day, there were a lot of clear international groups there as well as the Canadians. There was a strong German and Swiss crowd there as well as the Norwegians and my people, the Finns. The finnish people tend to have a strong showing in ski jumping every year and this year they were on top. Janne Ryynaenen flew an amazing 105 meters down the mountain and earned a 34 second lead in the cross-country portion of the nordic combined with the closest competitor being an American Todd Lodwick.

The corss-country venue was a different location so we had to do a small hike to the stadium where that took place. While we waited, I did a little pin trading with a fellow finn as well as get a great spot up on the hill directly parallel to the starting line. During this time the sun came out again and it people relished in its warmth. The kids were running around sliding on their backs down the hill, the people were in a festive mood, and the food lines weren't long at all. It sort of reminded me of the atmosphere of a ski town party at the base of the mountain.

Going into the cross-country portion of the race, I figured that all the excitement was finished since the ski jumping was over, and a half minute lead made it seem like the gold was in the bag for the Finn and a silver for the Americans. Oh, how I was wrong. . . . The 10km race was crazy exciting! The lead position changed like 5-7 times in a race that was only 25 minutes. At the first lap, Janne kept the lead and only lost 10 seconds to Todd who was working hard to catch up. Then on the second lap the Finn fell!

And lost all 26 seconds! Soon he was second behind Todd. Then on the next lap there was some sort of scramble and a Japanese guy came out of nowhere and took the lead, then another half lap later there was another scramble and he was gone, the American and Finn were gone and they were replaced by another group of skiers and the result was A frenchmen Jason Lamy Chappuis, American Johnny Spillane, and a random Italian Alessandro Pittin. The whole race was crazy exciting with apparently just about anyone having the chance to win in the 'cross-country-skier-cross' portion of the event. I loved it! I would totally see this event again in the future! I give it 2 thumbs up!