January 18, 2008 – The Limeliters, that glorious folk-singing group from over a generation ago, used to include a joke in its shows. This beefcake somehow hooks up with an old woman and is happily surprised at the pleasure the crone provides. Her faux comment, delivered in a creaky, old-guy voice: “There’s no substitute for experience.”

Three-time Olympic Nordic combined skier Bill Demong, 27 and in his ninth season with the U.S. Ski Team, is the living proof of that adage. Things that bothered him earlier in his career, don’t rattle him any more. He’s more confident, more comfortable.

He’s learned to control what he can control and deal with the rest in the best way possible – and Demong is skiing the best of his career. He’s nailed one World Cup win – the third of his career – and four other podiums.

Going into Klingenthal, the onetime East German Nordic center, for two more events this weekend, he’s in second place overall. Granted, that’s after only 11 of 24 events, and World Cup Finals are two months – an eternity in sport – away. But he’s been smokin’ this season.

Johnny Spillane, another three-time Olympian who is his “co-captain” with the U.S. combiners, was second in the first event of the season in Kuusamo, Finland. Demong was third the next day and he’s gone on to be on the podium in five of the six World Cup stops. That’s consistency of a type never seen in this country. Todd Lodwick finished fourth three times, but he never had five top-3s in a season.

“I’d say I’ve been a little more surprised at the overall result, especially on,” Demong said. “I figured I’d start normally, have a top-10 in Kuusamo and go from there. But I started off good and I’ve been healthy and I’ve been really consistent about what I’m doing…and how I’m doing it, and that goes for the last two or three years.

“Usually, I’d done better in the second half of the season. I didn’t feel like I did anything special in Kuusamo but, obviously, my cross-country keeps getting better,” he said. “Now, I just put my head down and do the things I know that make me feel good on Saturday and Sunday.”

His winter training routine hasn’t varied for several years, he said. He was forced to sit out the 2003 season after fracturing his skull in a fluke swimming pool mishap in the summer of 2002; since then, Demong’s held pretty much to the same regimen.

“From Nov. 1 until about April, I’ll have a two-hour ski Monday, then ski for two hours Tuesday with weights. Then a long, hard interval session on Wednesday and I’ll take Thursday off. Don’t tell me to go outside on Thursday because I won’t. Then I roll into the weekend and I’m ready,” he explained.

“I’m throttled by Wednesday night, so I take Thursday off and Friday morning I’m starting to feel good again.

In summer, he lives in Park City, Utah, to take advantage of the jumping opportunities at Utah Olympic Park and be close to U.S. Ski Team training and sports science facilities. “In April and May I’ll train as much as I can. I do a lot of bike riding, maybe 30 percent of my training and 25 percent roller-skiing, and the rest would be running,” he said.

“I’ll mix it up. I did a lot of bike racing last summer, and just a lot of riding. Two or three days a week I’d go for three or four hours on my bike. I cut back on the strength work a little bit, but it’s usually two workouts a week. In winter, it’s once a week…a maintenance session.

“And in winter,” Demong reasoned, “I tend to do more classic technique workouts for recovery. We only skate, so classic helps me work different muscles. We don’t have bikes on the road and running in winter isn’t a lot of fun, so classic workouts are good ways to get the ks on and change muscle groups.”

One thing Demong has learned is the need for recovery. Yeah, train hard. Absolutely, pedal to the metal – for a medal – in competition. And then catch your breath. Let your body recover so when you get back into a starting gate, you’re ready to rip.

Sponsored by Lake Placid’s Olympic Regional Development Authority, he skied and took some jumps. He also was the face of New York’s Adirondack region one day with The Weather Channel, participating in periodic reports from Mount Van Hoevenberg, the 1980 Olympic cross-country and biathlon venue. He was joined by two biathletes, Lowell Bailey and Tim Burke, also sponsored by ORDA.

“I think I jumped about four sessions and all but one day I went for a three-hour classic ski in the woods. I’d ski at Van Hoevenberg or the Visitor Interpreter Center in Paul Smiths, skied with my sister [Katy]…just put in some easy time.”

And since he went back to Europe right after Christmas, Demong has been a prairie fire. Heading into Klingenthal, and its traditionally rainy weather for competitions, Demong had been second, second, fifth, second and seventh.

Head Coach Lsse Ottesen smiles as he sees the results accumulate. “Billy’s having such a shot streak – I’m sure it must be the coaching.” And he walked away, laughing.