2012 U.S. Ski Team Preview COMBINED/SKI JUMPING
Nordic Combined
A Team
Billy Demong
Hometown: Vermontville, N.Y.
Bryan Fletcher
Hometown: Steamboat Springs
Club: Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club
Equipment: Elan/Rass/Madshus/Win Air/Uvex
Sponsors: Steamboat
Overview: Bryan Fletcher has earned a place among a unique
group of athletes. He is six years younger than the rest of the “A”
team, a batch of veteran competitors who never quit working. While
KRIS DOBIE; KATIE PERHAI/U. S. SKI TEAM; TODD WILSON
he could just get carried along in
the slipstream, he is determined
to make his own mark. He contributed his first World Cup top- 10
last season at Ramsau and was
an equal member in the World
Championship team event, where
the squad placed fourth. “Looking
forward, I still have work to do to
be among the best consistently,”
he says. He cut his World Cup
rankings in half last season and
just missed the top 20 in the final
tally of the Grand Prix.
Todd Lodwick
Hometown: Steamboat
Springs
Club: Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club
Equipment: Atomic/Jalas/
Uvex/Swix
Sponsors: Mossy Oak
Overview: Lodwick will be 35
this season, but his attitude sure
isn’t aging. After taking a two-year break from competition, he
returned from retirement and
provided the glue holding together the team that won the Olympic
silver medal in 2010. He led his squad into those Games by overpowering the competition for two World Championships in 2009.
Last season, paying only token attention to the World Cup, he finished fifth in the title-meet large hill event just ahead of teammate
Bill Demong. “I will be the oldest on the tour,” he says, “but if the
young guys want a piece of me, they will have to earn it.”
Johnny Spillane
Hometown: Steamboat
Springs
Club: Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club
Equipment: Atomic/Rass/Win
Air, Uvex, Swix
Sponsors: Visa, Steamboat
Overview: After setting American nordic combined Olympic
records in 2010 (three silver
medals) Spillane had a relatively
relaxed 2011 season, using the
World Cup events just before the
World Championships as a tune-up for those competitions, his seventh trip to the big dance. Turning 31 this season and now a father,
he’s learned that pacing, and peaking, are critical components to
success. With no championship on the line this season, the focus
becomes World Cup.
B Team
Brett Denney
Hometown: Steamboat
Springs
Club: Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club
Equipment: Elan/Rass/
Madshus
Sponsors: Alpina, Rudy Project,
Infinity, Madshus, Honey Stinger
Overview: Brett Denney is a
training animal. Last season was
his first on the U.S. team, and he
embarked a full-blown season
SkiRacing.com OCTOBER 31, 2011 | 44
