Chicago Recap!

Well it was fast and furious in Chicago. I'm already in the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid now, getting ready for the another week. It was a fun time competing in Norge though.

Saturday, as I said earlier, we had National Champs. Martin was less than pleased with our team's performance during our 2 open training jumps Friday (myself very much included). However, we all stepped it up for official training and the competition. My one Nordic Combined jump wasn't my best, but at 65m, still solid. My second competition jump - which only counted for jumping, was 3 meters farther, and gave me a 14th place finish for the jumping.

 In the NC race, I skied from 12th and finished 10th, 9th amongst Americans. In terms of race time I didn't have an awesome performance, but I skied the whole race alone and had a great last lap. Overall, it was a good day for me, definitely my best results at Nationals.  

A big thanks to Kris Edlund for taking hundreds of wonderful pictures all weekend!  Here's a few of them, but many, many more are up on www.stpaulskiclub.com

Bill Demong out-sprinting Johnny Spillane and Bryan Fletcher, respectively, for his 8th National title.

My teammate, Erik Lynch, finished the race 5th, beating out 3 of the US Ski Team's athletes. It's great for our team to have National results like that, showing the big guys at USSA that the next generation is knocking at the door.   

Erik, bib 6, with Taylor Fletcher (9), Nick Hendrickson (8), and Canadian Wesley Savill (7).

Sunday was just a regular jumping competition. I had a lot of fun and finished 11th.  Bryan Fletcher (US NC team) topped all the special jumpers for the win.  

After jumping we drove 40 miles away for a dinner with Ben Berend's grandparents. They have a gorgeous house in southern Wisconsin, complete with a swimming pool inside and a professional garden outside. Literally - his Grandma is a landscaper for a living and now that she's in her seventies and semi-retired, must spend hours gardening in her backyard. They had a lot of fun, and went a bit overboard, feeding and entertaining the team. When we got there we watched the Packer - Bronco game (which was a little more fun for me than all the Coloradans). His grandparents had M&M's out on all the table, appetizers galore, a solid 12 pounds of beans, a couple gallons of salad and enough burgers and brats to feed 4 of our team. We didn't starve. Hopefully they have another party next weekend! Of course, Grandma Berend sent us with a few gallon bags of cookies, M&M's and brownies. Fortunately we're starting an intensity week, so we'll burn it all off in a hurry.

Hanging at the Berend's place.