When we headed into the 2003-2004 season, our ambitions for the season were high. At the 2003 World Championships, Johnny Spillane had broken a barrier that no one in Nordic skiing in this country had accomplished by winning a gold at a major championship. The whole team had been driving for a medal for years, and it finally happened in 2003. The motivation leading into the next season wasn’t any weaker; Johnny had opened a door for us, and we saw that it was now possible.
Nevertheless, the 2003-2004 season didn’t start as we had planned. It took us a while to get back to where we were as the previous season ended - and then move beyond. In retrospect, I think there were several reasons; one of them was probably that we wanted to make even more progress, and that set us back. Todd Lodwick turned it around though, after coming back from our Christmas break and made four podiums after that, including winning (Schonach, Germany) and going on to become the German Grand Prix champ in front of the big German favorite, Ronny Ackerman, the defending World Cup champion who had won every competition before the holiday break.
Slowly
but surely, our other athletes started to perform again, as well. I think Todd
got the whole team's confidence back again. Bill Demong and Carl Van Loan
started to perform in the B-circuit, and Johnny, who had been sick for almost
two months - from late November, moved himself back in contention in A. Except
for Todd’s four podiums, our best team performance of the '04 season was
placing third (Todd) and fifth (Johnny) at the pre-Worlds in Oberstdorf,
Germany. I also have to mention Eric Camerota’s fifth- and ninth-places
finishes in the World Junior Championships in
After
the season we made some changes in our staff. Corby Fisher, who did something
that no coach in the
Corby Fisher (right), who has moved to become the head coach of the special jumpers, and combined's new jumping coach Lasse Ottesen (left) had a cold start on the summer season. It was snowing the first few days of summer opening in June.
The
ultimate goal(s) for the future is, of course, the 2006 Olympics in
So far, in this preparation phase we’ve gotten a good start. We have to improve every aspect of what we do, but our first and foremost priority, as a team, is to bring the jumping level to a better and more consistent level. Johnny and Todd have performed at a high level in the past but even they will tell you they know need to be more consistent.
It's now mid-July and we’ve been through our first training period of the summer.
We still have a long way to go but the improvement, for the coaches, has been good so far. Todd has a drive that I’ve never seen in him - and I’ve been with him since 1995. Many of his jumps and sessions also have reflected on that; there have been jumps that were well above what he’s done before. Todd is the clear leader of the group with his eight years of being ranked in the top 10 in the world. On the hill, he sets the standard for the rest of the group. They all know what they have to stretch for.
Johnny made some small adjustments, and even if it doesn’t work every time yet, he’s on his way to perform at a higher level than before.
Bill Demong has had a couple of years of struggle. Bill was 10th in the World Cup points after the 2002 Olympic season, and he was getting established as a top-class NC skier. After a preseason swimming pool accident, where he fractured his skull, he had to take one year away from jumping. That set him back from jumping both physically and technically. Throughout last season, he improved steadily, but didn't quite get back to where he left off two years ago. This spring and early summer he made some major steps, and is now very close to where he was.
Carl Van Loan is the one on the team who has made slow but sure steps throughout his career. Now ranked 40th in the world, Carl also has made small steps in the right direction.
Dave Jarrett is working with our World Cup B team. He’s in charge of the Camerota twins (Eric and Brett), Jed Hinkley and Alex Glueck. We expect them to really charge forward and challenge the more experienced guys in the A group.
Eric
Camerota, newcomer on the A- team 2004-2005 season in the air in one of the
first jump sessions of the summer at Utah Olympic Park.
We have two disciplines to take care of, and as for XC we also have some work to do. Physically, we need to train harder and rest harder. We still have to realize that we’re a young team that needs time to build the human machine. Our challenge is to become more efficient, save energy when we can, and be able to step on it when we have to. That requires both physical work and technical adjustments.
Bill leads Johnny through an intervals session in Soldier Hollow.
On
all the aspects of getting better, we have really good support from a lot of
people. We work daily with our Sport Science department at the Ski Team. We
consult them in any aspect of physical training. Scott Higgins has been with the
team for several years and been an important part in building the knowledge.
Unfortunately, he decided to leave the Ski Team for a job in
Scott
Blair has been with the team for a numbers of years as a PT and has contributed
in more aspects than I thought he would. Not only does he help with recovering
from training and preventing injuries, but he's also been a huge asset in
helping us understand how the body works the best, which is supporting us in how
we improve both physical and technical work. From a functional standpoint, he
helps us (athletes and coaches) understand how the body works the best. Karyn
Thull is new on the support staff this year and she will alternate as a PT for
Scott. Karyn was brought in with our team doctor, Larry Gaul, from Vail,
Both
the groups are working tight together, coaches and athletes. There are eight
athletes who push each other every day in training in
We’re
running a residence program in
I
have my alarm set for 6:30 every morning now – that’s when they start OLN's
coverage of the Tour de France in
Even though we are doing a completely different sport, and the teamwork is not that obvious, I believe in order for us to blow barriers we need to learn from Postal Service. It’s going to be crucial that the athletes push each other every day, and learn from each other and all the people that we surround the team with. Every one on the team, athletes and staff, must pull in the same direction. As on the Postal team, we all have our own specific task, but we still need to listen and learn from each other.
As we strive towards perfection, we have to remember: we’re never done - there always things to improve. That is the beauty of it!