In an incredible finish, Johnny Spillane takes the Silver Medal in the first Nordic Combined competition in Vancouver! After the ski jumping section, the Steamboat boys, Todd Lodwick and Johnny Spillane found themselves in 2nd and 4th position respectively. Todd Lodwick would start behind Janne Ryynaenen of Finland with a .34 second start delay and Johnny Spillane would start in fourth position with a .44 second delay.

Todd Lodwick led a large portion of the 10km Cross Country competition. He seemed to be very comfortable until.., in a crowd during the last lap, he seemed to almost go down! Moments after Norihito Kobayashi of China took the lead and began to pull away from the whole pack. At that point Lodwick seemed to be struggling and could not keep up with Kobayashi, who was not expected to be in contention in this event. Spillane, however, was able to keep pace with Kobayashi and chased him down in quick order and take the lead. Once Johnny took the lead he began to pull away and put some real distance between him and the rest of the lead pack!

Now it was a question of whether he could hang on to the lead. At the final crest Johnny had a nice lead but #1 ranked Jason Lamy-Chappuis of France, who started the race with a .46 second time delay, was accelerating and starting to close the gap. Lodwick was maintaining 4th position but at the final turn Lamy-Chappuis kicked in the after burners and it was a four man scramble for the finish line! In the last 15 yards of the race, Chappuis made an incredible sprint to take the Gold 4/100ths of a second in front of Johnny Spillane. An incredible finish for all the Americans with Johnny Spillane in second for the Silver medal, Todd Lodwick in 4th and Bill Demong in 6th!

“I was struggling a bit in the training days, but the last couple of days have been better and better” Johnny said. “I had a really good jump today.., and put myself in a position to contend. Spillane continued “The race was tough because there was seven or eight guys in there going in to the last lap…, I had a good kick at the end, I was a little tired at the very end.., overall I’m very satisfied with the race.”

What a spectacular race and effort on the part of the Colorado Olympians Johnny Spillane and Todd Lodwick! “Steamboat Springs, Ski Town USA, gives the USA it’s first ever medal in Nordic Combined”