Brett Camerota

In preparation for the Olympic season, Brett Camerota joined three U.S. Nordic combined teammates and two coaches in France for three summer weeks of ski jumping, cycling and watching the Tour de France live. The Park City, Utah, native describes the highlights and lowlights of the trip, and gives an eyewitness account of Todd Lodwick's high-speed bike crash.

Tell me about the Nordic combined team's summer trip to France.
The other guys are really good at biking, and I'm not really good. I'm not used to the six-hour rides. We'd go out every day and try to do the bigger stages. I was definitely struggling a little bit.

Did your teammates wait up for you when you fell behind?
Oh, they were waiting. I think it was hard for them to go that slowly sometimes, but they would wait for me.

How did you like watching the Tour live?
It was cool to see it. We watched three stages.

[U.S. head coach] Dave Jarrett said that you got a backstage pass to see everything up close.
Yeah, we got to walk among the teams as they were warming up. We could go pretty much anywhere.

You've been competing with elite athletes for several years now. Was it motivating?
We do Nordic combined, a sport that requires endurance at a high level. When you see cycling, though, it opens your eyes. I did four six-hour days, and I was dying. Those guys do six-hour days for three weeks!

You were eyewitness to Todd Lodwick's cycling crash. What did it look like from your perspective?
He's definitely lucky. Every day, there are so many people that bike up and down to watch the mountain stages. There were so many bikers, and so many cars, and the road was pretty narrow. We were going pretty fast, and there was a blind corner. Todd was in front of me, and he went for it in the right lane, but there was a traffic jam and he kind of locked his brakes up and slid into the left lane. There was a car coming up at the same time, going maybe 20 mph. He hit the windshield sideways and bounced straight up.

Where were you when it happened?
I was about 50 feet behind him. There were so many bikers going down that I didn't know it was him at first. I was just surprised that someone got hit by a car. Once he flew up in the air, I saw it was his blue bike jersey. I was like, ‘Oh, crap!' I crossed to the left side of the road -- all the cars had stopped - and I threw my bike, and Todd was already on his feet. He was just in shock. He didn't break any bones, but he also didn't know if he had any internal injuries. We had a French lady call an ambulance, which took like an hour. He's lucky he didn't break anything, because that could have been bad.

Did you think that you'd have to apply emergency medical response when you first saw it happen?
When he got hit by a car and went flying five feet over it, I assumed he wouldn't be getting up. But he got up!

After that, did you and the team continue biking without Todd?
Yeah. I roomed with Todd on the trip, and I was joking around with him. ‘God, tomorrow, you're going to feel like you got hit by a truck!' He couldn't bike, his bike was done, and he couldn't jump, so he flew home.

Regarding the Olympics, how do you feel about nailing down the fourth position on the team?
At the last Olympics and World Championships, the fourth guy was pretty far behind the other three. This year, I would say that the fourth guy has been closer than he's ever been in the past. There's not a huge drop.

What is you primary focus as you prepare for Vancouver?
If I make the team, the main goal would be the team event. That event is a huge goal for all of us. I got some experience in it in 2009, doing a World Cup team event with those guys.

What motivates you most about making the 2010 Olympic team?
I've been together with these guys for a long time. It would just make all the hard work and training worth it.

What's it like having your twin brother Eric as a teammate and training partner?
Growing up, we always trained together. Now, we can always measure how we're doing. He usually jumps a little better than me, so if I'm jumping as far as he is, then I know I'm jumping alright.

Are you the better cross-country skier?
Naw, we're pretty close. We're back and forth. But he consistently jumps further than I do.

What's it like having home and workplace in the same town?
We're lucky that the U.S. Ski Team is based right in Park City. The training possibilities are some of the best, because bike trails, jumps and the weight room [at the Center of Excellence] are right there. For us, it's definitely the best place to be.

Compiled by Martin Thorstensson, NBCOlympics.com