Demong raves about 2010 Olympic nordic venues

World Championships nordic combined medalist Bill Demong gives the nordic venues for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver two thumbs-up. He said they will be "awesome" once they're completed and organizers get to stage some test events this winter and next.
CALLAGHAN VALLEY, B.C. — World Championships nordic combined medalist Bill Demong gives the nordic venues for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver two thumbs-up. He said they will be "awesome" once they're completed and organizers get to stage some test events this winter and next.
    Demong, silver medalist in the individual event in March at worlds in Sapporo, Japan, was one of only three athletes who made a two-day visit — at the request of VANOC (the Vancouver Organizing Committee) — to the $100 million nordic venues in this heavily forested valley not far from the renowned alpine slopes and sliding venue (i.e., bobsled, luge, skeleton) at Whistler resort. The 27-year-old is aiming to become only the third U.S. nordic combined skier to compete in four Winter Games.
    "The trails have been cut for cross-country and combined — and for biathlon, and they're putting in the steel for the jumps," he said. "It's cool now, but it'll be absolutely awesome when they're done."
    John Aalberg, the two-time U.S. Olympic cross-country skier who was chief of competition for the 2002 Olympic cross-country races at Utah's Soldier Hollow, is nordic director for VANOC. He spoke to more than 50 journalists on a media tour, as did John Heilig, the jumping and nordic combined venue manager. Also speaking was biathlon chief Max Saenger, a former Dartmouth College skier and citizen racer who helped create the Maine Winter Sports Center in Presque Isle and Fort Kent; the center has served as the site of final Cross Country SuperTour series and the long-distance title races for the U.S. Cross-Country Championships the last two years.
    Demong flew to Vancouver Wednesday and toured the Callaghan Valley nordic layout that afternoon, then joined a media tour the next morning for orientation and updates of the $120 million nordic site as well as the Athletes Village and the alpine and sliding facilities at Whistler.
    "It's the most compact nordic site in history, with cross-country, jumping and biathlon all within about a square kilometer," Demong said. "It's got this 'Lord of the Rings' quality or personality to it; it's just a good site…
    "They have this huge, old-growth forest — cedars, Douglas fir … just so beautiful, and as I came in, the sun was shining but there were clouds on the snow-capped mountains, and it really reminded me of New Zealand [where the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy was filmed]."
    The trails were designed by Aalberg and Hermod Bjoerkestoel, the Norwegian who worked with Aalberg in designing Soldier Hollow; Bjoerkestoel also designed the 2006 Olympic trails in Pragelato Plan for the Torino Winter Games. "It's such a beautiful area and the tracks look great," Demong said. "They're technically challenging, there are speed changes, and they've got some good climbs and some nice downhills. It's a great package, as we've come to expect from John and Hermod."
    Eventually, the Olympic legacy site will have 50 kilometers of cross-country trails, but 14 kilometers of Olympic racing trails are being finished first, along with an 8 km system of warmup loops.
    "They're about two-thirds of the way down the in-run for the big hill and they have the tower for the K90. The jumps will be about a 95-meter and a 125, about the same as Pragelato [Italy, host to the 2003 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships]. VANOC has decided not to tear down the jumps after the Games; they'll be permanent facilities, which is outstanding," Demong said, "and Heilig's already looking at smaller, development-level jumps, maybe 18- and 30-meter hills, which would be even better."
    To get an even closer look at some of the alpine terrain, although he won't be competing there, Demong hiked Whistler Mountain before leaving Vancouver. "Callaghan and Whistler have some unreal, beautiful terrain," he said.
    Demong's interest in the development-level jumps had a special relativity to a camp he and former combined sprint world champion Johnny Spillane, who also is aiming for his fourth Olympics, staged in Steamboat Springs earlier this month. The second round of development-level training camp will be held in early August at Utah Olympic Park in Park City.
    "We need to get younger kids training more, and training more intensely…  and this was one way to do it," he said. "If Heilig can get those smaller jumps built, it could be a good step toward helping rebuild Canada's jumping program."