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When I heard that the 2009 U.S. Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined Championships were going to take place in October, on Lake Placid, on plastic, I thought it was a joke.

It wasn't. This fall, two of the world's oldest winter sports will turn a new chapter in the United States by leaving the snow behind and crowning our country's national champions with the help of plastic and roller skis.

It kind of feels like watching a conservative Republican embrace Bill Clinton in a public forum. Or like watching a game on the creepy blue football field at Boise State.

But when you consider this is the country where Angelina Jolie once was married to Billy Bob Thornton, I guess anything goes. So last week, I picked up the phone and called local Nordic skiing guru Todd Wilson to get his take on this year's plastic national championships.

He not only supports the idea, but he was part of the group that approved the move. His reasons are simple and easy to understand.

In the past, the people who organize the national event have had problems getting the top athletes in the same location at the same time. As World Cup schedules expanded, the U.S. National Championships were pushed further and further back in the season. Add that to the demanding schedules that younger competitors must meet just for a chance to make the national team, and things get even more difficult.

In the past several years, the championship events have been pushed to late March. Organizers have been forced to choose places that have good late-season snow. But the events were held early in the morning or late in the afternoon, when the snow was at its best.

The other problem is the athletes are ready to be done after a long World Cup season, the conditions are marginal at best, and enthusiasm - even in places such as Steamboat - is melting almost as fast as the snow.

So this year, when the organizers were faced with pushing the events back one additional week because of schedules, they elected to make a drastic change. Lake Placid was chosen to host the events as part of the Flaming Leaves Festival on Oct. 11. It's the first time the championships have ever been held without snow.

So it may seem unnatural to crown the champion of a winter sport without snow, but it's necessary. The move allows athletes to compete at the highest level, it showcases those athletes when they are the most excited about the season, and it could help widen the base of support for a couple of sports most Americans may never fully understand.