Billy Demong won America’s first – and only – gold medal in Nordic combined at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

What is Nordic combined?: Nordic combines ski jumping with cross-country skiing. The event starts with a ski jump the length of a football field at 60 mph and finishes with a cross-country ski race. 

How did he do it?: Twelve years later, on the eve of another Olympic Winter Games, Demong has the same advice for aspiring Olympians as he always has: “Treat the Olympics like any other race.”

What's he doing now?: Now age 41, Demong serves as executive director of USA Nordic, the governing body of Nordic skiers in America. He lives in Kimball Junction with his wife Katie and sons Liam, 10, and Renn, 6.

Is Jon McNaughton trolling the left — or the right?

Deseret News writer Samuel Benson traveled to Jon McNaughton’s studio to understand America’s most controversial artist.

What he encountered was a self-portrait of paradox: an artist who says his work is taken too seriously when it generates uproar, but one whose remarkable success feeds off the controversy. McNaughton relies on the left for publicity, and the right for profitability.

Read more.

More in Politics

• Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson tests positive for COVID-19 (KSL.com)

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COVID

• Gonzaga reportedly suspends John Stockton’s basketball tickets for his failure to comply with campus mask mandate (Deseret News)
• The top 7 omicron variant symptoms for children (Deseret News)

Faith

• Which Latter-day Saint apostle will speak at RootsTech’s Family Discovery Day? (Deseret News)
• ‘Now There Is No One’: The Lament of One of the Last Christians in a Syrian City (The New York Times 🔒)
• The Church has an ‘unparalleled future’ in Europe, President Nelson tells Latter-day Saints from 48 European countries (Church News)

Northern Utah

• Shot Hunter High student continues to improve, thrives off cheers from community (KSL.com)
• Weber State changes structure to increase campus diversity (KSL.com)
• 1 person dead in Salt Lake City shooting, police investigating (KSL.com)
  

The Nation

• Brian Laundrie wrote that he killed Gabby Petito, the FBI says (NPR)

The World

• State Department orders families of embassy staff to leave Ukraine (NPR)

Former Utah Ute Matt Gay sends Rams to NFC championship game with walk-off field goal

Former Utah Utes kicker Matt Gay hit the 30-yard game-winning field goal as time expired for the Los Angeles Rams as they beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 30-27 on Sunday.

The win sends the Rams to the NFC championship game next week, where they will host the San Francisco 49ers for the right to advance to the Super Bowl.

Talk about a redemption story.

Read more from Brandon Judd about the game-winning field goal.

See the sports TV schedule for this week.

New With:

• BYU Cougars: Seneca Knight, Spencer Johnson are coming up big for BYU off the bench
  
• Utah Jazz: Rudy Gobert and Bojan Bogdanovic both come away from loss to Warriors with injuries
  
• Utah Utes: Runnin’ Utes are struggling, but freshmen Gabe Madsen and Lazar Stefanovic are emerging stars