VIENNA (AP)—Former Olympic ski jump champion Toni Innauer has left the Austrian ski federation after 17 years as sport director for ski jumping and Nordic combined.

The 51-year-old Innauer, who won gold at the 1980 Lake Placed Games and silver four years earlier in Innsbruck, said Wednesday that he got “several offers” but that he won’t join a foreign ski federation for at least the next year.

Innauer will be succeeded by another former Olympic champion, Ernst Vettori, who won the ski jumping event at the 1992 Games in Albertville, France.

For a country that had never won a medal in Nordic Combined, the Americans have really had a HUGE Olympics.

The Americans were definitely helped by the weather today. I’m beginning to learn a bit more about ski jumping. A tiny bit. Enough to know that a tail wind is not a good thing. You see, I’ve been recently told that ski jumping is not about falling, it’s about flying. You need a head wind for that. Some of the strongest skiers received tail winds that meant they were pretty much out of it before the skiing ever started.

So, going into the cross country portion, Johnny Spillane was second, and Bill Demong was sixth. By the end of the third lap, the front group included Spillane, Demong and Austria’s Bernhard Gruber. This allowed Spillane and Demong to work together to an extent. But when it comes down to it, it’s an individual sport.

Whistler (AFP) - America's Bill Demong won the Olympic Games Nordic Combined gold on Thursday.

Fellow American Johnny Spillane took silver with Austria's Bernhard Gruber claiming bronze.

WHISTLER (Reuters) -- Bill Demong of the United States won gold in the Nordic Combined individual large hill on Thursday, thanks in part to dreadful weather conditions that sidelined most of his serious rivals.

After the morning ski jump session, Demong started the 10km cross country race in sixth place, well behind leader Bernhard Gruber of Austria.

WHISTLER (AP) -- Snow and wind forced race officials to restart the jump portion of the Nordic combined competition.

Race officials at Whistler Olympic Park convened after the weather worsened. The conditions brought shorter jumps that were putting some of the better competitors at an insurmountable disadvantage in the 10-kilometer cross-country race that follows the jumps off the large hill.

Start times in the race are based on jump distances, and the best jumpers were still awaiting their turns as the order is based on World Cup standings.

Whistler (AFP) - Austria won the Nordic Combined team competition on Tuesday, with the United States finishing second and Germany claiming bronze.

Melted snow in anchorman Mario Stecher's googles meant it took some time before he realised.

Two medals in one Olympics for the U.S. Nordic Combined team. Johnny Spillane won silver last Sunday in the Individual Normal Hill event. Now the U.S. took silver in the Team Large Hill. This is a real step forward for the Nordic Combined program here in the United States. Austria took first, and Germany took the bronze.

Whistler (AFP) - America are aiming to shatter Scandinavian hopes at the Olympic Games Nordic Combined team event on Tuesday.

The US team are pinning their hopes on the likes of Johnny Spillane in the competition which combines the large ski jump hill and a 5km cross country ski.

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WHISTLER '€” Defending Olympic champion Chandra Crawford is one of two Canadians who has qualified for the quarter-finals of the women's cross-country ski sprints today at Whistler Olympic Park.