CBC Sports Online : 2002 Winter Olympics, Salt Lake City, Utah : Nordic Combined

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The Slow Rebirth of Canadian
Ski Jumping & Nordic Combined
Team Canada is playing a waiting game. Fourteen years have passed since Canada sent a ski jumper to the Olympics, and Canadians will sit out another round at the 2002 Games in both the Nordic combined and ski jumping events. But a new generation of Canadian ski jumpers has all the while been in the making.
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In the mid-19th Century, athletes travelled from ski carnival to ski carnival in a primitive form of a competitive circuit. Their specialization was in both ski jumping and cross-country skiing, two popular Nordic fields of competition. Spectators considered the competition to be the premier event, a true show of athletic mastery and ability.	Nordic combined demands a uniquely versatile form of athleticism. Ski jumping and cross country skiing require speed and strength on their own, but the two together require endurance and pacing, of slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscle. Find out more about a sport in which big leads are always vulnerable and come-from-behind victories are always possible. Find out more about the nuances of nordic combined >>>	Classical Style: The older style of cross-country skiing in which the skis remain parallel to each other as the athlete travels -- the motion that is simulated by a "Nordic-Trak" machine. Find out more about the language of Nordic Combined.


	Individual Another showdown between Gottwald and Ackermann looms. Sprint Ackermann and Gottwald duel for the title of fastest and farthest. Team The Germans and Austrians will likely end the reign of the Norwegians.