Billy Demong, right, poses with his Olympic hero, Bill Koch, in front of the Art Devlin Sr. statue at the Olympic Jumping Complex in Lake Placid. (Photo provided)

Nordic combined Olympic medalist Billy Demong doesn’t get starstruck very often, but he said that changed when fellow medalist Bill Koch called him earlier this year.

Demong, 41, said Koch, 66, is his “childhood hero,” and he got a chance to meet him when he was 9 years old — at the 1989 New England Bill Koch Youth Ski League festival at Craig Wood Golf Course in Lake Placid.

But a lot has changed since 1989, mainly that this Adirondack native has competed in five Olympic Winter Games, 1998 to 2014, earning two medals in 2010 at Vancouver, Canada — a gold in the large hill/10km individual event and a silver in team event. Nordic combined athletes compete in cross-country ski races and ski jumping.

Koch, a Vermont native, was the only American to earn an Olympic medal in Nordic skiing until 2010. He won a silver in the 30-kilometer freestyle race in 1976 at Innsbruck, Austria. He also competed in the 1980, 1984 and 1992 Winter Olympics.

Demong met Koch in Lake Placid once again this fall, more than 30 years after their first encounter, to discuss their experiences as Olympic medalists.

Vermontville native Billy Demong shows off the gold medal he won in Nordic combined during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games at Vancouver, Canada. He is now the executive director of USA Nordic. (News photo — Lou Reuter)

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Sharing experiences

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Demong is now the executive director of USA Nordic, based in Park City, Utah, but he’s also a storyteller. On Dec. 1, he contributed to USA Nordic’s annual Story Project, a place where skiers go to share their stories — one for every day in December.

This is the Story Project’s 10th year. Demong said Jeff Hastings, a former Olympic ski jumper who placed fourth in the 1984 Olympic Winter Games at Sarajevo, started the project in 2012.

Billy Demong as a young skier in the Bill Koch Youth Ski League, circa 1990 (Photo provided)

“He is a real doer, and this is his brainchild,” Demong said.

Hastings started the project as a way to bind the ski community on an annual basis, and 10 years later, Demong said it’s incredible to see that there’s no end to the stories, which can be read at https://usanordic.org.

The project is a core fundraiser for USA Nordic, too. The donations go through an online platform called Classy, and the site’s developers have presented USA Nordic’s Story Project at their annual conference as one of the best uses of their platform.

Demong said he usually kicks off the Story Project on Dec. 1, but his experience meeting Koch was one for the books.

Medaling in Nordic combined skiing is a strange thing, Demong said, because the sport has a deep tradition in the Olympic world, and so much of competing athletes’ time is spent hoping for success in the field.

Billy Demong competes for the U.S. Nordic combined team during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games at Vancouver, Canada. (News photo — Lou Reuter)

“Both of us were able to understand and articulate how much relief there was when we were successful,” Demong said.

He said that once an Olympian achieves that success, they can get placed on a pedestal they didn’t necessarily want. He said it’s “really cool” but also “really hard to take” as an individual when an entire community is saying, “Oh my god, you finally did it!”

Demong said Koch talked to him about the New England Bill Koch Youth Ski League, expressing the desire to bow out as the league’s namesake. Demong told him that his name is important to people, and he didn’t think a name change would fly.

“I know,” he said Koch told him. “I tried.”

Demong said he and Koch align in all the life skills you get from participating in Nordic skiing, but neither of them are obsessed with winning medals at the Olympics.

USA Nordic Executive Director Billy Demong announces in September 2021 that Lake Placid would host the 2022 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Nordic combined and ski jumping. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

“Which is funny,” he said. “We both medaled, but it didn’t drive us.”

Demong thinks Koch called him to meet so they could relate their shared experiences together, which Demong said he understands. He said he can’t wait until the next U.S. skier medals so he can sit down with that person for a chat.

Demong related his exchanges with Koch to being a U.S. citizen who lived in Germany for a time and meeting another U.S. citizen who’s lived in Germany. Koch and Demong could talk about German food, hotels and experiences that many U.S. natives can’t relate to.

Demong said he could have written his story about Koch 10,000 ways, but his main takeaway from their interaction was how similar they were because of their Olympic experiences.

There are also similarities in their professional missions through USA Nordic and the New England Bill Koch Youth Ski League. Demong said he and Koch try to ensure that as many kids and people who want to experience the sport get the opportunity to. He said he thinks it’s easier for Koch to have the ski league knowing that he’s out there doing the same thing for the same good reasons.

Demong said he thinks this year marked the beginning of a bond between him and Koch. The two have plans to go skiing together later this winter, and Koch may travel to Utah for a visit.

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Lake Placid past and future

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Life has come full circle for Demong. While he lives in Salt Lake City, he’s a Tri-Lakes native — having grown up in Vermontville and trained in Saranac Lake and Lake Placid for many years. And he just bought a home in Lake Placid. His wife is a professor in Salt Lake City, and his kids go to school there, so he said the family isn’t likely to move to the Adirondacks full time. But, he said, his parents are still here and he’s already come to the area eight or nine times this year. Plus, he’ll be coming up a lot more in the future with USA Nordic.

Demong said that USA Nordic is eyeing Lake Placid to see how much of their national operations they could move to the area. For many years, Lake Placid has been the home base for ski jumping and Nordic combined in the U.S., but when Salt Lake City hosted the Olympic Winter Games in 2002, New York’s former Olympic facilities were falling out of international standards. Now that the state has invested millions of dollars in upgrading the facilities at Mount Van Hoevenberg and the Olympic Jumping Complex, he said, Lake Placid is right back to having some of the best facilities in the world.

Plus, Paul Smith’s College has upgraded its cross-country skiing facilities and is now USA Nordic’s official higher education partner. On Tuesday, Dec. 14, the college announced that Aidan Ripp, a sophomore from Cloquet, Minnesota, would participate in the USA Nordic Olympic Trials in Lake Placid on Dec. 24.

Demong said USA Nordic will spend time training here, and it will be putting its home base here more and more.

“It’s all happening quickly,” he said.

Demong said it will take time to condition the community and stakeholders to the shift as USA Nordic determines which people, operations and offices “make sense” to move to Lake Placid.

USA Nordic athletes competed at the ski jumping and Nordic combined Olympic Team Trials in Lake Placid on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Demong said he’s looking forward to bringing competition back to Lake Placid and showcasing the new and improved facilities to the world.