TRONDHEIM, Norway | Bill Demong of the United States captured a World Cup Nordic combined event Saturday, outsprinting Bjorn Kircheisen of Germany at the finish to win by 0.7 seconds.
Demong covered the 15-kilometer ski race in 38 minutes, 54.9 seconds and finished eighth in the morning ski jump. It was his third World Cup victory and fifth top-three finish.
Bill Demong is from Vermontville, New York. He’s been a three-time Olympian and a world championships Nordic combined silver medalist.
Congratulations, Bill and you make your country, the US, proud. Hehe.
Source

Felix Gottwald is the Gold Medal winner (18 minutes 29 seconds) in the Nordic Combined Sprint event.
Gottwald’s victory bring Austria’s Gold Medal tally to 8 (the rest are 5 Silvers and 3 Bronzes). Most of Austria’s Gold Medals are won in events where skiing is an important element: Alpine Skiing, Nordic Combined, and Ski Jumping.

Gottwald thanking the heavens after crossing the finish line(Source: NBC)

According to today’s schedule of events, it looks like it’s going to be a busy day! I would just like to remind everybody that not only is this a group blog .. but according to the b5media site

… We are opening the site up as a true community endeavor.
… We have invited a variety of other networks to participate as well.
So if you want to write about the games, please feel free to register at the site and we’ll get you all setup. Don’t forget to put in your country (”Extended Profile” under “Users”) and a link to your site …read more

brem writes / asks Is 25 Medals Goal For Canada Realistic? and has a dPoll going. Well, at first I immediately went there and clicked YES (naturally – Go Canada Go!) .. but then I got to thinking ..
25 Medals for Canada? Where are we going to get 25 medals?
I should say that in my general community of friends and online contacts, sure – we are proud of ALL our Canadian Athletes (maybe a little more with the 5 Winnipeggers in Torino) and we are quite happy if they just perform to the best of their abilities to …read more

Georg Hettich of Germany held onto his slim lead from the ski jumping portion on the way to what some may say was a surprising win in the Nordic combined individual event Saturday.
Hettich beat out a surging silver medalist Felix Gottwald of Austria, while Norway’s Magnus Moan took home the bronze in a photo finish.