Relighting the fire within Day 9: Nordic combined team's disappointing, but record finish

MIDWAY — Billy Demong was destined to help the U.S. win its first Olympic medal in nordic combined.

It just didn't happen when he and his teammates thought it would — Feb. 17, 2002.

Instead, the date they'd dreamed about collecting that historic hardware, became the day that nearly destroyed their passion for the sport that combines ski jumping with cross country ski racing.

The team finished fourth on their home course, in their adopted hometown with their friends and family watching.

It was the highest finish for an American team in the sport dominated by Europeans. But to the men who'd done nothing but train for this day — even literally counting the days until the competition — it was the ultimate failure.

"We didn't even stay in the athlete village because we were so focused," said Demong, who still lives in Park City and trains on the course at Soldier Hollow.

In 2002, the loss was devastating to Demong, Todd Lodwick, Johnny Spillane and Matt Dayton.

Afterward, Lodwick could barely answer reporters' questions, and even years later, they refer to the experience as a defining moment.

A few months after the Salt Lake Games, Demong suffered what seemed like a life-altering injury when he cracked his skull diving into a swimming pool. At first doctors told him he may not make it back to skiing. But he kept at it recreationally, while he worked construction. He said that time off gave him a renewed love of the sport and helped him avoid burnout.

While he was recovering, Spillane became the first American to earn a World Championship. And in 2006, Lodwick, a five-time Olympian retired.

But with Demong back in top form and teaming up with Spillane, Lodwick came out of retirement after two years away from the sport for one reason — to claim that medal they'd let slip away in Utah. In addition to reuniting three of those men who skied in 2002, the U.S. team would add Park City native and 24-year-old Brett Camerota. When Demong and his teammates were competing in 2002, Camerota and his brother were aspiring teenage athletes who trained at the facilities built for the 2002 Games.

When the team claimed it's first medal in 2010 — a silver — it was Camerota's jump that gave the U.S. team a time advantage going into the cross country ski race.