Johnny Spillane, a resident of Steamboat Springs who has taken classes at Colorado Mountain College, won the first medal for the United States in the Nordic combined competition at the Vancouver Olympic Games. He finished with a silver. Steamboat resident Todd Lodwick finished fourth.
France’s Jason Lamy Chappuis won gold by only four-tenths of a second.
Nordic combined features a ski jump followed by cross-country skiing later in the day.
This was Spillane’s fourth Olympic Games. The United States has not won a medal in Nordic combined since the Winter Games began in 1924.
Read the story of the American Nordic team on the NBC Olympics site, or watch a slide show of the event. Read an interview with Spillane here.