February 14, 2010 (Whistler, BC) – Johnny Spillane’s historic Nordic Combined

silver on Sunday is the first US Nordic Combined Olympic medal, 86 years in the making, and their first Nordic medal of the 2010 Olympic Games. Spillane in 4^th after the jumping moved up steadily to claim the silver by a mere 0.04s over Alessandro Pittin from Italy who settled for the bronze.

For gold medal winner, Jason Lamy-Chappuis (FRA), it was business as usual. When he crossed the finish line at Whistler Olympic Park, Lamy-Chappuis raised his arms towards the sky as the first winner of the Nordic Combined events at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. The win meant two golds for France as Vincent Jay win the men’s biathlon 10km sprint earlier in the day.

With Todd Lodwick in fourth and Bill Demong in sixth place, the US celebrated near stellar team results on the day. Brett Camerota, tenth after the ski jumping, finished in 36^th while Canada’s Jason Myslicki finished 45th.

Lamy-Chappuis is already the man of the season. The winner five FIS World Cup races, he’s consistently into the top ten and leads the World Cup overall. He needs five points in the last three races to clinch the trophy for World Cup’s best.

The race leader after the jump was Finn Janne Ryynaene with the longest jump of the day at 105 meters. But Ryynaene is not the best cross-country skier (he fell during the first lap and finished 26th overall). Lodwick, second after the jumping, was in excellent position while Spillane in fourth was in striking distance as well. Lamy-Chappuis sat in 5^th while lightweight Pittin was 6^th

Out of the medal race in 40^th after the ski jumping, Magnus Moan (NOR), scored the best racing time and moved up to 9th spot. Felix Gottwald in 41^st was also at a big disadvantage and the Austrian star finished 14^th. Gottwald debuted at his first Olympics in 1998 with no medals to show. In 2002 in Albertville he earned three bronze medals and at Torino 2006 he won two gold and one silver medals.

In the 10km cross-country race, the top 7-8 athletes pushed each other toward the finish line. On the last of the four 2.5km long laps, Spillane broke away searching for luck and glory on the last uphill and then down into the stadium. “Maybe it was the wrong strategy,” Pittin said later. “I had the impression, that the Americans did everything on their own, and at the end would be tired.” Spillane himself agreed that he probably overpaced and that he was out of gas when he arrived in the stadium.

For Lamy-Chappuis is was a dream come true. Born and raised in Montana – “not far from here, therefore I feel at home here in Whistler” – told the story of his childhood. When he remembered the 1992 Albertville Games with Fabrice Guy winning the Nordic Combined contest Lamy-Chappuis said, “I wanted to be like him and for this goal I trained all these years, together with my coaches and team mates. Today, a dream came true. Today, I am celebrating the best day ever in my career.”

“When I saw Johnny Spillane break away, I thought that the gold was gone. But I had really good skis, and the American did not have enough power to keep his rhythm. The last 100 meters were just great; I had a lot of fun!”

Full results after jumping here.

Final results after 10km xc ski here.

Results (brief)
1. Jason Lamy-Chappuis( FRA) , 5th jump, 25:01.1
2. Johnny Spillane (USA), 4th jump, +0.4
3. Alessandro Pittin (ITA), 6th jump, +0.8

4. Todd Lodwick (USA), 2nd jump, +1.5
6. Bill Demong (USA), 24th jump, +17.9
36. Brett Camerota (USA), 10th jump, +2:09.5
45. Jason Myslicki (CAN), 43rd jump, +4:23.6