Posts Tagged ‘Nordic Combined’

When the Competition is Least Expecting It…

March 2nd, 2010 by Robin

Gold for U.S. Nordic Combined - Bill DemongWhether you are an athlete, a corporate executive, or a fledgling entrepreneur, watching the Olympic games demonstrated – over and over again – the power of inspiration, commitment, and following your dreams.

One word that describes what the Olympics are all about: EMOTION.

I have seen athletes celebrate by expressing emotion long held inside.  I’ve seen moms and dads leap for joy and scream their lungs out.  I’ve seen grown men cry and weep like infants.

People I have not spoken with in twenty years have called me and broken into tears.  I’ve had athletes remind me of their Olympic moment (or near miss) more than 25 years ago and they still choke up when telling the story.

The playing fields of the Olympics are truly the sites of some of the most emotional experiences these athletes and their families will ever experience.

I recall one Olympian telling me, six months after the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002 in a discussion filled with tears, that he would never allow anything in his life to matter that much again besides his family.  He won gold here in Vancouver!

And so it comes to a close.  We all go back to our day jobs and our day-to-day lives.  The 17 days when the world came together in peace and nearly 100 countries all ate and slept in the same place, comes to an end.  For many Olympians the good and bad moments will be vividly be remembered every day for the rest of their lives.  I know of very few things that matter so much to so many, and I feel privileged to have been part of it again.

I believe that these Olympics have somehow made the world a better place, and given us all more hope and optimism for the future.  Here in Vancouver the games lived up to the slogan that was created for 2010, “Go World!”  Now the torch passes to Russia, and we look forward to Sochi in 2014.

I walk away with “my boys” winning seven Olympic medals!  I can remember when the rest of the world thought the U.S. Nordic Combined Team was a funny joke.  Well, we sure showed them the U.S. team can laugh too – and compete with the best of them.

Still, it’s not the medals I will treasure the most, but the memories of the struggle and triumphs it took to get here.

I feel there is an important lesson for those of us in the business world to take away from these games:  Look what can happen when a team is inspired, goal-oriented, and committed to stay the course, even if the rest of the world is laughing.  When the competition is least expecting it, you may just pass them by.

Gold, Silver and Incredible Team Work

February 25th, 2010 by Robin

Bill Demong wins gold, Johnny Spillane silverAfter twenty two years, gold and silver on the same day.  Words can not capture it.  Four medals for the Nordic Combined in 10 days – after zero in the previous eighty-six years.

When I spoke to Billy Demong’s mom right after the race she reminded me of the time I sat her down and said that as a coach to her son “I am going to put you through the wildest emotional roller coaster you could possibly imagine.”  She then pointed out to me that I had also told her it was possible some day her son could win Olympic gold.

Today was perhaps the finest example of team work I have ever seen at the Olympics.  Bill Demong took gold and Johnny Spillane took silver in large part because Todd Lodwick led a pack of ten very strong skiers who were set to try to ski Billy and Johnny down.  Todd sacrificed his own medal chances by putting the brakes on that pack several times, by surging to the front and then slowing the pack down.  As Todd came into the stadium in a possible race for fourth, he then coasted in high-fiving the spectators in the crowd on his way to crossing the finish line.  Talk about commitment to the greater good!!

I don’t know if there is a gold bullet, but if there is I’ll find it and add it to my growing collection of “silver bullets” to commemorate this incredible day.

More to come…

Second Silver Medal Just as Sweet for U.S. Nordic Combined

February 24th, 2010 by Robin

U.S. Nordic Combined Team wins SilverAnother history-making moment for the U.S. Nordic Combined Team: A silver medal in the team relay competition on Tuesday.

There is an overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment among the team today.  The world seems right.

To me, it serves as confirmation that when a group focuses on being a team and builds a foundation of trust, commitment to the greater good, and mutual accountability, they can become the very best in the world.

The Nordic Combined athletes have a new look of pride in their eyes I have never seen before.  They’ve been nicknamed the “band of brothers,” and have literally have spent more than 3,000 days together living out of the same cramped hotel rooms, sleeping on each others shoulders during long and sometimes cold bus rides, and enduring the hardships of traveling and competing in more than a dozen countries every year for more than a decade.  There were no shortcuts in earning this medal.

Attending an Olympic medal ceremony and being awarded a medal in front of the crowds has to be one of the most emotional experiences there is in any lifetime.  I am so incredibly proud of the U.S. Nordic Combined Team for making it to that podium.

The U.S. Olympic team is on a roll, and seems determined to make this Olympics one for the record books!  A lot of athletes’ competitions are over now, yet they all continue to show up at other events and cheer and support the entire U.S. delegation.

The people in Vancouver and the streets are becoming more energetic every day.  Olympic fever is building, and I can feel it pulse as I walk down the streets of Vancouver and Whistler.

All of Canada is holding its breath, watching and hoping for the men’s hockey team.  Hockey is a religion here.  After Canada’s loss to the USA the other night, I found myself riding Vancouver’s subway and it suddenly occurred to me wearing a bright (and very visible) Team USA Olympic uniform might not be the smartest move down in the subway filled with hundreds of Canadian fans.  No one said anything even the least bit rude, and I was never concerned for safety – although perhaps not the most thoughtful move on my part, looking back on it!

Ultimately, the theme of the Olympics, “Go World,” continues to shine through.  It is reassuring to see the youth of the world come together for the fiercest and most hard-fought athletic competitions on the planet and do it in peace and harmony for 18 days.  Where else can you bring so many countries together for one event and feel good about the future of mankind?  It truly is remarkable.

And, yes, if you were wondering, I’ve added another Silver Bullet can to my medal collection.

A Leader Among Us Can Make All the Difference

February 17th, 2010 by Robin

Some of you may have seen yesterday’s Wall Street Journal that looked at Olympic athletes of years past and highlighted what they have done and are doing today.  I was please to see former Nordic Combined Skier Ryan Heckman among them.

While Ryan never took home an Olympic medal, he took away – and gave – much more to the Nordic Combined team. He emerged as a leader when we needed it most; in fact, if there’s one athlete I credit with the turnaround that started more than two decades ago, it’s Ryan.

Ryan joined the U.S. team within the first few years that I took over and he was a game changer.  Many executives hear me talk about the importance of cultural fit and finding the right talent to embody the organization and culture.  Ryan did that for us.  While many athletes before him were satisfied with just making the national team, Ryan pushed himself and others for peak performance to be the best possible.  It wasn’t just about being on the team…or even being a national champion (Ryan was multiple national champion in two different disciplines).  Nor was it enough to just make the Olympic team. (Ryan was the youngest Olympian at the 1992 Olympics.)  He wanted the U.S. team to be the best in the world. He lived it.  And, he led it.

Ryan was never the biggest or strongest athlete; in fact, he was the exact opposite, but his beliefs and commitment made him a giant and a true visionary.  He was not afraid to call out unproductive behaviors of either myself and/or his teammates even when it was not the popular thing to do.  He was often ostracized or given the “freeze out” by those athletes who held to the culture of old.

He never expected any more from anyone than he expected from himself.  He gave it all physically and emotionally and was welcomed being judged and evaluated on results and performance based metrics. I learned a lot from his spirit.

When a leader is going to attempt to change an overall culture in an organization, you need an athlete or employee in the corporate setting to model and showcase the desired behaviors.  The leader then needs to hope and pray the executive and/or athlete gets the results to demonstrate how the new culture can drive and produce.  I was lucky enough to have that in Ryan.

It is tough emotionally on these types of employees/athletes who forge ahead into unknown and often unaccepted waters.  Yet, without this kind of franchise player or exemplary executive, real sustained culture change is very difficult to attain.

A leader cannot change the culture until you have a believer to follow. The current Nordic Combined team has three guys in the top six (Todd, Bill and Johnny), who are reaping the benefits of the door that Ryan opened.

Thanks Ryan for all your contributions over the years.

Before I sign off, I’ll let you all in on a little secret: if the Nordic Combined team does great things in the team event next week, it will have very little do with the physical training or technical competence; it will be because of the culture created in this team years ago.

Latest News on U.S. Nordic Combined’s Silver Medal

February 16th, 2010 by Dawn

In case you missed it, some great stories have appeared since Sunday about the U.S. Nordic Combined team member Johnny Spillane bringing home the team’s first-ever Olympic medal.  Tom Steitz is quoted in many of them:

National Public Radio – All Things Considered host Melissa Block took some time on Monday to interview Tom Steitz.  Listen to the interview, and Tom’s first hand description of the emotion and celebration at the finish line.

Mercury News – “Bill Marolt, U.S. skiing chief executive, recalled why he gave the Nordic combined team support so many years ago, “They had a coach (Tom Steitz) who had a plan and a couple young kids performing OK,” said Marolt.  “He sat down with me, ‘If we do these things, we’ll have success.’ I liked his plan and his passion.”

Sports Illustrated – “Former coach Tom Steitz remembers a meet in Norway in 1989 in which he discovered that the event organizers hadn’t provided the Americans with the usual heated huts and waxing facilities to prepare them for the competition. “They said it didn’t matter because we weren’t going to come close to winning anyway,” Steitz says. “They told us to go wax in the parking lot.”

Associated Press – “After 86 years of trying, we are actually legitimate,” said former U.S. coach Tom Steitz, who maintains close ties to the American team. “How do you boil up 86 years of frustration? You don’t. Everybody starts crying. We are all going to sit around tonight and drink champagne and touch the medal.”

You can read Tom’s personal account of the moments following Johnny’s history-making win in his blog entry posted earlier today.

Congratulations Tom, Johnny, and the entire U.S. Nordic Combined team!

Celebrating a Long-Awaited Olympic Medal: SILVER!

February 15th, 2010 by Robin

Johnny Spillane Crossing Olympic Finish LineWhat a feeling!  That about sums up yesterday’s Nordic Combined event in Whistler.   What a memorable day.  Had the weather cooperated, I would have missed the first Nordic Combined individual competition (I was originally scheduled by NBC to be at Alpine skiing yesterday, but when it was canceled I was sent to Whistler).  As it turned out, I had one of the best seats in the house, and watched Johnny Spillane win the silver medal just 10 feet from the finish line.

Watching the U.S. team members cross that finish line within tenths of seconds of each other, 2-4-6 (Johnny, Todd and Bill) was indescribable.  Johnny’s silver medal is the first U.S. Olympic medal for Nordic Combined ever – 86 years.  The sense of relief and excitement was overwhelming.

In those first moments, everyone was just wildly celebrating.  I was probably the craziest of the bunch, cheering and shouting when Johnny’s mom came around the corner with a big hug.  Once she started crying, I was overcome and neither of us could stop.  It’s hard to describe in words the feelings that evolved in those minutes and even hours following. I felt like years worth of emotion all came out at once.  All the hard work, hope, determination, dedication and perseverance that it took to get to that triumphant moment, we couldn’t contain it.  It was just so big.

I first met these guys when they were in their teens and we’ve been through quite a ride  – good times, yelling, laughs and tears of defeat, but nothing stands against one of our own standing on the podium.  Johnny has the medal but he carries Todd and Bill’s heart and soul.  They alone know the miles they have traveled to finish in those top positions – from sleeping on floors and waxing their own skis back in the day, to becoming the reigning world champions.  I could not be any more proud of each of them.

silver bulletLater in the evening the celebration was underway.  In the family’s lounge, I was with Johnny’s dad, and we decided to have a celebratory  drink.  Although out of character, I ordered a Coors Silver Bullet in honor of the day and Johnny’s medal.  I told him when the beer is gone I’m going to put the empty can in my trophy case to remind me of this day.

There is a newly minted and palpable sense of “belief” among the U.S. Nordic Combined team now, that the podium is attainable.  It’s a beautiful thing.  Congrats Johnny, and the entire team.  This is YOUR year!