Recently at a Weather summit in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, 11Alive meteorolgist Samantha Mohr met with three-time Olympian Johnny Spillane to learn more about the sport of Nordic combined.
The event focuses on skills that are vastly different in nature – the ski jumping portion requires explosive strength, while cross-country skiing requires swiftness and stamina.
For the event, the ski jumping portion is performed first. That is when the skier propels himself off of a 37-story hillside to soar well over 100 yards (the length of a football field!) through the air! Where they land determines their starting position in the cross country race. The race is wild rush over six miles of rolling terrain on skinny, light weight skis using a skate like motion.
WATCH | Nordic Combined 101
Samantha found that it is a lot harder than it looks, because the skis are incredibly slippery and it is almost impossible to get traction!
By the way, Johnny Spillane is the only U.S. individual athlete to ever win an Olympic medal in the sport of Nordic combined. You can hear Johnny on NBC this week as an analyst for the network covering the Nordic combined competition this week!
