The 'eagles' are coming

Following Austria's epic victories at the Four Hills Tournee and the win of Andy Kofler, the nation is now gripped in the midst of a love-fest for their 'Austrian Eagles.'

Frankly speaking, it all makes sense to me -- except when it came to this past weekend's Ski Flug (ski flying) at the Kulm jump at Bad Mitterndorf, Austria.

Twenty-eight-year-old Slovenian Robert Kranjec, who only had one top-10 finish this season entering Bad Mitterndorf, won the opening day's individual crown before nearly 40,000 screaming fans and then recorded a silver medal the very next day.

Kranjec celebrated his second-ever World Cup victory in high style -- along with some measure of disbelief. "This really surprised me," Kranjec said. "My goal was to be in the top 10, but now I am very happy."

Simon Ammann -- the Swiss superstar -- was second, only 0.5 points behind the winner. Austrian "big hill" flyboy Martin Koch was third. Ammann continued to hold onto the World Cup lead.

Gregor Schlierenzauer, who is a sensational ski flyer, managed just fifth place -- behind yet another surprising result: Czech jumper Antonin Hajek in fourth. Yet Austria was again to strut the stuff with killer jumping from Gregor.

On Day 2 of ski flying, Schlierenzauer did hit the afterburners and claimed a big win over Kranjec, who still was superb -- it was the seventh ski flying win for the former world champion. Finn-Air's Harri Olli, desperate for a podium, was third. By all reports it was a fine event. The OC chair there is former Austrian great Hubert Neuper.

***

I am the father of a former U.S. Ski Team member, and like most parents -- I suspect -- I've harbored many thoughts while our young men and women are out competing all over the world in search of elite performance objectives. Parents might display a host of emotions like joy, fear or anxiety based upon them competiting so far away. Admittedly, in terms kids use now, it was much tougher "back in the day" before email, texting and cell phones shrunk the world down to size. I remember the pre-CNN days in Europe where if you were lucky enough, you might find an International Herald Tribune. There was a real sense of isolation that I often felt. Especially in the Eastern Bloc.

So recently I talked to several parents about their innermost thoughts about their kids competing in ski jumping and cross-country skiing.

Dave and Carol Kelly Newell of Bennington, Vermont -- parents of star sprinter Andy -- expressed that there are both ups and downs: "It is hard to have Andy away for such long period of time, but he has been away a lot since he was in ninth grade. We are excited for the opportunities he is having. We supported all of his decisions, including not going to college, because we agreed that it was the best course of action. We travel to see him once or twice each year."

Jim Alexander is the chief of police in Lebanon, New Hampshire and is American ski jumper Nick Alexander's father. I asked him how he coped with things when so much of the action is overseas.

"I miss the weekends on the hills with him all over the east, but I am happy he is where he is," Jim said. "We have learned how to follow him with every media form available -- from the live ticker results on the FIS site, to an occasional live video stream over the internet."

I still remember the days of faxes for communication too. Amid the pangs of worry before cell phones and Skype, communication was always one of my greatest concerns. I asked both families how they deal with that.

Jim Alexander turns to his telephone after each event to talk with Nick, saying, "It's a real highlight to talk with him, right after a competition, for his mom and I. Nick is great about calling when he has time and tells us what went right or wrong in his events. It helps keep us connected to him and the ski jumping world."

The Newells would certainly agree, as Dave said, "Andy is pretty good about calling at least once a week, and after big races ... he usually Skypes to our land line. It has also been great to follow him through fasterskier.com and now twitter -- we also just call him on his cell sometimes. We really miss not seeing the races on TV or online; that's a big bummer."

***

Can you believe just how well the U.S. Ski Team's Nordic combined squad is doing? On this past Sunday they went 1-2 at Val di Fiemme, Italy with Bill Demong grabbing the win and Todd Lodwick second, marking the first time in Nordic combined World Cup history, the Yanks have gone first and second. Along with Johnny Spillane, who broke a pole in Italy, they have amassed an incredible record this season that cannot help but make them favorites in Vancouver.

I was able to speak with Billy, late Sunday afternoon: "Today was awesome," he said. "It's been a tough start for me this year on the cross-country side. My results had been sub-par, and I started to wonder what I was doing wrong. Today the coaches and I decided just to go for it and the fitness was there. It worked out."

Billy, like the rest of the guys, is a team player and it did my heart good to hear his concluding remarks: "All of us are doing well race after race, fighting for the podium spots, and I really trust the peaking program we have done the last few years, so I think all will be well going into the Games."

Class guy -- for sure.

***

Yesterday, I spoke with America's fine jumper, Nick Alexander of Project X. He had been at the Ski Flug at Bad Mitterndorf, and though he did not qualify, he learned a great deal.

"Right now, I am feeling pretty good," he said. "While I didn't qualify, it may have been a blessing in disguise. I had the chance to take a little extra speed as a fore jumper and I set my new PR of 185 meters."

The New Hampshire native said he's still trying to find the groove that he had earlier this year.

"My jumping is still not the same as last summer, and I am struggling to find my groove again, but I am trying to stay positive. ... I know it will come back, and it will come back strong," Alexander stated.

He will head with other Project Xers to Neustadt for his first Continental Cup (COC) of the winter.

"My goal is to still score world cup points this season," he said.

***

USSA's VP of Athletics Luke Bodensteiner -- a former Olympian -- said the recently completed U.S Cross-Country Championships in Anchorage was an exciting indication of things to come in the future.

"Not only did Kikkan show her form by sweeping all the distance events, but there were also a number of top finishes by junior skiers -- most notably the championships won by Tyler Kornfield. The last time a junior won a national title was when Kris Freeman did it in 2000. Two year's later Kris was banging out a top-20 result at the Olympics and showing he was on his way to being one of the world's top skiers," Bodensteiner said from his Park City office.

***

Vegard Ulvang, the chairman of the FIS Cross-Country committee issued a position paper last week that has seen wide distribution regarding the future of the sport. The affable and popular Ulvang has about heard enough from people who have told him, "The old ways are better," or that "The many different distances and events and techniques have taken cross-country in the wrong direction," or from others who say, "We want more sprints -- more city sprints." It's the old adage that you can't please em all, all of the time.

The sport is bigger than ever before; 22 different nations have taken World Cup points so far this season. We've never had such results distribution before.

"We have to expect discussions and various opinions," Ulvang said. "All the different opinions and discussion is after all, positive for the development of the sport, and is much more preferred than silence ... yet we cannot turn the clock backwards and dream about the good old days. I think cross-country has become more attractive to a wider range of athletes, More than 50 million people watched the fight up the Alpe Cermis live last year on the Tour de Ski. There will be a number of good proposals for our committee when we meet in May, including the introduction of a new multistage event over three days in November."

You can believe in this man to represent the sport with the very best of intentions and to try and always do what's right. That's the Vegard we all know and admire so much.

***

The same weekend Demong and Lodwick were creating their magic on the snows of Italy, the returning Felix Gottwald managed a victory in the first day of racing. Monday, his trainer, Bard Jorgen Elden told me he was pretty pleased, saying, "Felix has been four times on the podium this year. Every time you are on the podium is confirmation that Felix will be competitive at the Olympics. All the competitions this year have been tight and most of them have come down to a sprint for the first spots."

SHORT SWINGS: Congrats are in order for winners of the fourth Tour de Ski -- what an event. Polish star Justyna Kowalczyk won her first tour by overtaking Petra Majdic on the final climb. A big surprise on the last couple of days was former Tour de Ski winner, Lukas Bauer of Croatia, who defeated Petter Northug to win the title -- finding form that was not within his grasp just one year ago. Dario Cologna continues to show fine form finishing third and has fully returned from injury. ... Both Sarah Renner and Ivan Babikov had fine overall finishes, with Babikov ninth on the final day, in wet and soft snow conditions. ... Tim Burke of the U.S. Biathlon Team is back in the IBU leader's bib following another great performance in a mass start event in Oberhof. He finished second in the race.

The countdown is upon us at Vancouver, with but a few weeks to go.