 Demong at a press conference after his victory in the 10 km individual large hill event at the 2010 Winter Olympics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | William Demong | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | March 29, 1980 (age 44) Saranac Lake, New York, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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William Demong (born March 29, 1980, in Vermontville, New York) is an American former Nordic combined skier and Olympic gold medalist. Demong is a five-time Olympian, having competed in Nagano, Salt Lake City, Torino, Vancouver and Sochi.
Demong competed at the World Cup level starting in 1997.
His first World Cup victory came in 2002 in (Liberec, Czech Republic). Two more in 2007, (Lahti, Finland: March 9; [1] Trondheim, Norway: December 8). He also has three victories in World Cup B events in the United States in 2004 and 2005 as well. In the 2008 season Bill had one victory in Ramsau am Dachstein in the 2008 season but his first real banner year occurred in 2009 when Bill racked up five World Cup victories and took third in the overall World Cup standings. Heading into the 2009–2010 season, Demong had nine World Cup victories and numerous top-tens.
At the 2002 Winter Olympics, in Salt Lake City, Demong placed fourth in the 4 × 5 km team event and 14th in the 7.5 km event.
Demong won a complete set of medals at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships with a gold (10 km individual large hill: 2009), a silver (15 km individual: 2007), and a bronze (10 km individual normal hill: 2009).
Demong retired in 2015. [2]
Demong skied the final lap for the United States team consisting of Johnny Spillane, Todd Lodwick and Brett Camerota in the team large hill/4x5 km, winning the silver medal. [3]
In the 10 km individual large hill, Demong won gold. [4] Demong is the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in a nordic event. [5]
After the medal ceremony held later that evening for the 10 km individual large hill event, Demong proposed to his girlfriend, Katie Koczynski, in front of teammates and coaches at the team headquarters near Vancouver. [6] Koczynski said yes. [6] Also on that same day, Demong found out he was named the flagbearer for the American team at the closing ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics on February 28. [6] It was Demong's teammate, Spillane, who gave Demong the courage to propose to his future wife. [6] Demong and his fiancée discussed how this happened on NBC's Today show the following morning. [7] On July 11, 2010, Demong married Koczynski in Lake Placid, New York. [8]
Demong learned to jump through the New York Ski Educational Foundation (NYSEF). He attended the National Sports Academy during high school, and competed in the Nagano Olympics during his senior year.
In 2009, Demong began appearing in Alka-Seltzer Plus television commercials as part of the medication's sponsorship of the U.S. Ski Team.
His mother is a Korean-American retired chorus teacher from Saranac Lake High School. [9]
Simon Ammann is a Swiss ski jumper. He is one of the most successful athletes in the history of the sport, having won four individual Winter Olympic gold medals in 2002 and 2010. His other achievements include winning the 2007 Ski Jumping World Championships, the 2010 Ski Flying World Championships, the 2010 Nordic Tournament, and the 2010 Ski Jumping World Cup overall title.
Martin Schmitt is a German former ski jumper who competed from 1997 to 2014. He is one of Germany's most successful ski jumpers, having won the World Cup twice; a gold medal at the Winter Olympics; four gold medals at the World Championships; and a ski flying world record. His and his countryman Sven Hannawald's success further popularized ski jumping in Germany, and with particular help from cable TV station RTL, their coverage received great acclaim in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Masahiko Harada is a Japanese former ski jumper. He is best remembered for a meltdown at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, which cost the Japanese national team a victory, and his subsequent redemption at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano; the latter of which led to him being affectionately called "Happy Harada".
Noriaki Kasai is a Japanese ski jumper. His career achievements include a gold medal at the 1992 Ski Flying World Championships, winning the 1999 Nordic Tournament, individual silver medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and two individual bronze medals at the 2003 Ski Jumping World Championships.
Anssi Einar Koivuranta is a retired Finnish ski jumper and former Nordic combined skier, best known for winning the 2008–09 FIS Nordic Combined World Cup. He won the gold medal in the 4 × 5 km team event and a bronze medal in the 15 km Gundersen race at the 2007 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Sapporo. After winning a Ski Jumping World Cup competition in Innsbruck on 4 January 2014, Koivuranta became the first ever athlete in history of ski jumping to win an event in both Nordic combined and the ski jumping World Cup.
Kikkan Randall is an American Olympic champion cross-country skier. She has won 17 U.S. National titles, made 29 podiums on the World Cup, made five trips to the Winter Olympic Games and had the highest finish by an individual American woman at the World Championships, second in the Sprint in Liberec in 2009. She was the first American female cross-country skier to take a top ten finish in World Cup competition, to win a World Cup race and to win a World Cup discipline title. She won the silver medal in the individual sprint at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 in Liberec, becoming the first American woman to win a medal in cross country skiing at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, and in 2013 teamed up with Jessie Diggins to win the first ever American FIS Nordic World Ski Championships gold medal in the team sprint. She and Diggins won the United States' first ever cross-country skiing gold medal at the Winter Olympics in women's team sprint at Pyeongchang in 2018.
Johnny Spillane is an American athlete who competes in Nordic combined, a combination event consisting of ski jumping and cross-country skiing. Spillane is a world champion and three-time Olympic silver medalist. He announced his retirement from Nordic combined on April 18, 2013.
The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 took place 18 February – 1 March 2009 in Liberec, Czech Republic. This was the fourth time these championships were hosted either in the Czech Republic or in Czechoslovakia, having done so at Janské Lázně (1925) and Vysoké Tatry.
Jason Lamy-Chappuis is a Franco-American former ski jumper and cross-country skier who has represented France in Nordic combined ski events between 2002 and 2015, then in the 2017-18 season.
The Nordic combined at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2007 took place at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2007 in Sapporo, Japan on February 23, February 25, and March 3, 2007.
John David Jarrett is an American former Nordic combined skier who competed in the 1990s, including the 1994 Winter Olympics and the 1998 Winter Olympics.
Kathrine "Katie" Koczynski-Demong is an American skeleton racer who competed internationally from 2000 until 2005. Koczynski competed on the FIBT World Cup circuit from 2002 through 2005 and placed fourth at a world cup race in Calgary in November 2003. Koczynski competed in three world championships for the United States in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
Akito Watabe is a Japanese nordic combined skier who has been competing since 2005. He won a gold medal in the 4 × 5 km team event at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 in Liberec.
Mikko Kokslien is a Norwegian nordic combined skier.
At the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 in Liberec, Czech Republic, four Nordic combined were held. It also showed the biggest format changes since the introduction of the Gundersen method at the 1985 World Championships in Seefeld, Austria. In addition to the 10 km mass start event, there were changes in the Gundersen-based individual events. The 7.5 km sprint event was changed to a 10 km individual large hill event while the 15 km individual event was changed to a 10 km individual normal hill event with both being approved in September 2008. These changes also affected the Nordic combined program for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver though the mass start was excluded. The United States, which had two medals in Nordic combined prior to this championships, won a total of four medals with three golds and a bronze. Todd Lodwick, whose previous best individual finish at the world championships was 13th in the 7.5 km sprint at Oberstdorf in 2005, won golds in the 10 km mass start and 10 km individual normal hill events. His teammate Bill Demong won a gold in the 10 km individual large hill and bronze in the 10 km individual normal hill events. Germans Tino Edelmann and Björn Kircheisen each won a silver in the 4 x 5 km freestyle team event, then won individual silver medals in the 10 km mass start and 10 km individual large hills events, respectively. France's Jason Lamy Chappuis earned two bronze medals, earning them in the 10 km individual large hill and 10 km mass start. Norway's Jan Schmid won a silver in the 10 km mass start and a bronze in the 4 x 5 km freestyle event. A fourth American medal was prevented when Demong was disqualified in the ski jumping part of the 4 x 5 km freestyle team event for failing to wear his bib during competition, dropping the US to 12th and forcing their withdrawal from the cross country portion of the event. The Japanese won their first gold medal at the championships in the team event since 1995 when they edged the Germans in a photo finish. Current World Cup leader Anssi Koivuranta of Finland has a disappointing world championships, earning his best finish of fourth both in the 10 km individual normal hill and 10 km mass start events. Norway's Magnus Moan, second in the World Cup standings, also had a disappointing championships as well, with a best place finish of fifth in the 10 km individual large hill events even though he set the fastest cross-country skiing portion time in both the 10 km individual large hill and the 10 km individual normal hill events.
The men's individual large hill/10 km Nordic combined competition for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada was held at Whistler Olympic Park in Whistler, British Columbia on 25 February.
The men's individual normal hill/10 km Nordic combined competition for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, was held at Whistler Olympic Park in Whistler, British Columbia, on 14 February.
The men's team large hill/4 x 5 km Nordic combined competition for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada was held at Whistler Olympic Park in Whistler, British Columbia on 23 February. The Austrian team of Michael Gruber, Christoph Bieler, Felix Gottwald, and Mario Stecher were the defending Olympic champions. Gruber retired after the 2007-08 season. Gottwald originally retired after the 2006-07 World Cup season, but came out of retirement in May 2009 to compete for the 2009-10 World Cup season including the 2010 Games. The defending world champions were the Japanese team of Yūsuke Minato, Taihei Kato, Akito Watabe, and Norihito Kobayashi. The last World Cup event prior to the 2010 Games in this format took place on 12 December 2009 in Harrachov, Czech Republic, but that event was cancelled on 4 December 2009 to warm weather and lack of snow. A team normal hill event took place prior to the 2010 Winter Games in Schonach, Germany on 24 January 2010 and was won by the German team of Georg Hettich, Eric Frenzel, Björn Kircheisen, and Tino Edelmann.
The United States participated in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The U.S. team had a historic Winter Games, winning an unprecedented 37 medals. Team USA's medal haul, which included nine gold, marked the first time since the 1932 Lake Placid Games that the U.S. earned more medals than any other participant.
Johannes Rydzek is a German nordic combined skier who has competed since 2006.
| 7.5 km sprint |
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| 10 km individual large hill |
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