Very quickly, the nordic combined became the nordic discombobulated for an American team well-positioned to win a medal and optimistic it could.
However, the sight of Todd Lodwick collapsed in the snow at the finish of the first kilometer leg turned out to be symbolic of the Americans’ showing Sunday during the cross-country skiing portion of the two-day nordic combined at Soldier Hollow. Pretty soon it was the nordic unraveled. And although the fourth place was the best U.S. finish in any Winter Olympics, the team was more depressed than delighted.
“I walked into the stadium figuring we were second,” U.S. coach Tom Steitz said. “Right now it’s tough to think of it as a step forward.”
In team nordic combined, four athletes jump as far as they can off a ski jump one day and ski as fast as they can another. The distance measured is converted to time to determine first-day placings, and after the jumps at Utah Olympic Park on Saturday the U.S. actually walked into the stadium in third behind Finland and Austria, just ahead of Japan and Germany.
Americans Lodwick, 25, Bill Demong, 21, Johnny Spillane, 21, and Matt Dayton, 24, are proud of their skiing, and while they felt that Finland was beyond reach, they thought they just might catch Austria. Wrong. Germany’s quartet skated expertly and barged through for the silver, edging Austria in the last straightaway and even threatening Finland.
Lodwick, an eight-time national champion, fell slightly behind, but the combination of the 40-degrees-plus warmth, the 5,600-foot altitude, the hilly terrain and his own go-for-it effort left him prone after he tagged Demong.
“I felt like I let the team down a bit,” Lodwick said, despite helping his group improve on the Americans’ best previous finish–seventh in Lillehammer in 1994. “There’s no consolation. This is very disappointing. I wish I could have this day over.”
The Finnish team of Jari Mantila, Hannu Manninen, Jaako Tallus and Samppa Lajunen won gold. They began the day with a lead of 44 seconds over Austria. By the time the race ended, the German team of Bjoern Kircheisen, Georg Hettich, Marcel Hoehlig and Ronny Ackermann had closed within 7.5 seconds.
“We had a fantastic ski-jumping competition,” Lajunen said. “There’s a little more pressure when you are leading. It’s easier to come from behind.”
Lodwick was only two seconds behind when he completed his leg, but the gap kept expanding and the frustration growing for the tightly knit bunch of young competitors, all of whom, except Dayton, live in Steamboat Springs, Colo.–and he lives in nearby Breckenridge. Looking for a top ski showing, the Americans were stunned by the unexpected power of the Germans.
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“The Germans, I never figured them in second,” Steitz said.
By the time the last leg rolled around, the Americans were almost a minute out of bronze. Not even having nordic legend Bjorn Daehlie on the anchor leg would have made up the difference. A snowmobile might have helped.
“I felt I left it all out there and it wasn’t enough,” Demong said. “I was going to ski an awesome race because it was our home course. We were definitely looking up the list.”
Instead, looking up earned the Americans nothing but vertigo.