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On Valentine's Day, the first of three Nordic combined events on the Olympic program will be held at Whistler Olympic Park. The individual normal hill competition, being contested under a different format at the 2010 Olympics, involves one jump from the normal (K95) hill in the morning and a 10km cross-country skiing pursuit in the afternoon. Previously, two jumps from the normal hill were followed by a 15km pursuit, in an event called the individual, or Gundersen.
As is well-documented, the United States has never won an Olympic medal in Nordic combined, but 2010 is expected to be the year it puts an end to its drought. A strong lineup features the defending world champion in the event. Todd Lodwick of Steamboat Springs, Colo., came out of a two-year retirement in 2008 to fulfill a life-long dream of Olympic or World Championships gold. He achieved the latter, winning the non-Olympic mass start and this, the individual normal hill event, in Liberec, Czech Republic in February 2009. Winning the event in his fifth Olympics would be icing on the cake for the 33-year-old father of two.
Lodwick will be joined by 29-year-old Lake Placid, N.Y. native Bill Demong, a five-time winner on the 2008-09 World Cup circuit who won the bronze medal in the event at the 2009 Worlds. Other U.S. candidates for the four-man roster are Steamboat skiers Johnny Spillane and Bryan Fletcher and twin brothers Brett Camerota and Eric Camerota of Park City, Utah.
Through the 2006 Torino Games, half of the Olympic medals in Nordic combined have been awarded to skiers from Scandinavian nations. Finland's Anssi Koivuranta and Norway's Magnus Moan are their respective countries' best hopes to continue the proud tradition. In seven normal hill competitions held in 2008-09, Koivuranta and Moan won two each, helping them finish one-two, respectively, in the overall World Cup standings. Others to watch from the hub of Nordic combined are Norwegians Jan Schmid (the runner-up at 2009 Worlds) and Petter Tande, and Finns Hannu Manninen and Janne Ryyvanen.
Manninen and Austria's Felix Gottwald both followed the lead of Lodwick by coming out of retirement for one more shot at Olympic glory. Both heading into their fifth Games, these "comeback kids" have polar-opposite Olympic pedigrees, however. Manninen, a four-time overall World Cup champion, has never reached the podium in an individual event (all three medals have come in the team event), while Gottwald carries a six-event Olympic medal streak into this event, with four individual medals (one gold) and two team medals (one gold).
Germany should also send out four skiers capable of contending for gold. The defending Olympic champion in the normal hill event, Georg Hettich, has been passed on the team depth chart by Bjoern Kircheisen and Tino Edelmann, and does not figure to reach the podium in 2010.
