Johnny Spillane,Todd Lodwick Make History In Nordic Combined Despite Near Misses

A quarter mile from the finish line of the 10K cross-country skiing portion of the men's nordic combined normal hill competition, Johnny Spillane made a break for gold and US Olympic history. At the finish line he had that history but not the gold.

The nordic combined is an obscure Olympic event to most American fans. It combines two radically different elements—ski jumping and cross-country skiing. All competitors take one ski jump and are ranked based on their jumping performance for the cross-country ski. The man with the best jump begins the ski first and each subsequent skier takes off four seconds later for every point he scored below the leader in the jump.

Spillane, often overshadowed by his veteran teammates Bill Demong and Todd Lodwick, claimed a silver medal in Vancouver this afternoon, marking the first American medal in a nordic combine event in the sport's 86-year Olympic history.

While Spillane's accomplishment is a historic moment for the sport in the United States, it could have been even bigger. Just 200 meters from the line, Spillane had separated himself from a pack of seven other skiers who were in contention for the medals over the last five kilometers of the ten-kilometer race. But the young skier had made his break just a bit too soon and was caught by French veteran Jason Lamy Chappuis in the final stretch to lose by just four tenths of a second.

American teammates Todd Lodwick and Bill Demong also just missed out on the medals. Lodwick lost out on the bronze by less than a second to Italy's Alessandro Pittin and was just 1.5 seconds behind Chappuis. Demong finished sixth, but had by far the best performance in the cross-county ski of the top finishers as he made up over a minute on the other top finishers after starting the ski in 24th place following a poor effort in the ski jumping portion of the competition.

With the individual large hill and team events still to come, the US nordic combine team figures to be in the hunt for medals again. After today's performance they have to be considered one of the favorites to win the team event.

While today was the most significant day in US nordic combined history, it may have been a few tenths of a second away from launching the sport out of obscurity for the American public. A gold medal for Spillane or a second US medal from Lodwick could have gone a long way.