BIOGRAPHY:
Billy Demong is officially the first U.S. athlete in nordic skiing history to earn an Olympic gold medal, and as someone who has been at the head of the nordic combined community for so long, that's got to feel pretty good. Yet it was a fractured skull from a shallow dive into a swimming pool that was the turning point in his career, because according to Billy, it staved off potential burnout and re-stoked his love for competing. One other payoff: he became only the second U.S. nordic combined skier to earn an Olympic or World Championships medal. And Demong reminded the nordic combined world why he is considered one of the sport's elite in 2011, earning a sixth at World Championships.

BILLY SAYS:
The games in Vancouver were the culmination of over a decade of hard work and planning and our team's success has hopefully helped change the expectations of nordic skiing in the United States. Upon reflection of the last five years leading up to Vancouver, it was apparent that a solid long-term plan had lead myself and my team to the results in Whistler and that another plan needed to evolve to bring us to new goals in Sochi, like a team event gold medal and the foundation of a squad that will continue these results in the future. For me, that meant taking a step back from training and fulfilling some life goals last summer including rebuilding my house, marrying my fiancé Katie Koczynski and having our first son Liam. While I trained hard from September on, my results were lackluster in the beginning of the season. From my view, the struggle has helped fuel my fire for the future and on the same note, good skiing at the World Championships let me know that I'm still much in this game but now must work harder and smarter than ever to achieve a new level.

FIRST TRACKS:
Demong's father—an environmental biologist who's in the woods almost daily—had him on cross country skis by three, racing by 6. At 10, he started jumping in Larry Stone's Lake Placid program. He muscled his way into a preseason trip before the '98 Olympic season and earned his way onto the World Cup tour, competing in the Nagano Winter Games at 17 and his first World Championships the next year. Also in '99, he anchored the USA's gold-medal foursome in the team event at the Junior World Championships; the next season, with Demong skiing second, the team collected silver.

OFF THE SNOW:
Billy Demong—also known as the guy who never rests. I think I’m kind of known as somebody who lives every day to the fullest and maybe tries to accomplish more than he should. That’s my MO and that’s what I love doing. To me it’s not a waste of time, it’s not something that gets in the way, it's something that adds to what I do, adds to the person that I am, trying to do all these different things. If I had one thing to say to an aspiring athlete or parent it would be that sport (and life) is about the journey and ultimately it is the lessons of patience, discipline and persistence that matter and the friends you share it with.