Friday Five Medals Ceremony

I would like to invite to the medals stand three bloggers who surpassed all expectations in their descriptions of the Nordic Combined in today's Friday Five.

In third place, taking a bronze medal, is altar ego, who blogs at irreverent reverence. She gives us a beautiful description of the actual sport:

The sport wherein our heroes don skis to demonstrate proficiency in extreme: airborne nose-to-where-the-ski-tips-would-ordinarily-be where no other physical effort seems apparent, landing as far from the takeoff point as possible; and ground level, squeeze every ounce of energy from your body to go up hills, down hills and on the flat with legs and arms moving mercilessly to propel oneself forward and cross the finish line first before dropping over, seemingly dead.

In second place, the recipient of a silver medal, is Sally of Eternal Echoes:

Nordic combined is a speed knitting event, the competitors are taken to an outdoor location as close to resembling Norway as possible where they have to remover  their boots and socks, they are then presented with knitting needles and a good thick yarn ( each one representative of their country’s colours in some way). First is the speed cast on, with 5 points for the winner, 3 for second and two for third. No points are awarded to the others. These points convert to second advantages in the next stage…    

The competitors are then blindfolded;  the combined difficulty of cold feet and no sight is what makes the event exciting!   The buzzer goes and the real knitting begins, the first competitor to complete a sock wins, the sock must be completed within the specified standard. Because of the extreme nature of this event only the Gold, silver and bronze competitors are allowed to finish, boots and socks are then returned to all and further inspections of progress will decide the lower placings.  

This is not an event for the faint hearted, and months of barefoot training is required!

Finally, please give a Nordic Combined cheer to our Gold Medal Winner, Pastor Julia of Faith, Grace and Hope, who despite her lack of a television captures the true spirit of combining Nordic cultures in her answer:


Nordic Combined is when, in a Lutheran congregation, you have 3 vocal Norwegians who wish to celebrate Norway's ConstitutionDay and 10 semi- vocal Swedes who do not. Then you have some German-heritage Lutherans and one pastor of Polish origin who doesn't have a dog in the Scandinavian fight, but enjoys eating Danish. So you have a Hymn Sing and compete, antiphonally, with "Now Thank We All Our God" and "A Mighty Fortress." Then you eat lefse, lutefisk, Swedish meatballs and, of course, Danish. The winner of the Nordic Combined (loudest singing + most eating + most liturgically correct Jello salad) gets a Garrison Keillor novel. 


Thanks to all who played! Winners, please send me an email; I want to send you each a little something.