Nordic Worlds: Lodwick gold, Demong bronze
Dust off the record book and get out a fresh quill because what American nordic combined skiers Todd Lodwick and Bill Demong are doing in the Czech Republic is well beyond anything known within U.S. borders.
Lodwick, the recently unretired veteran, notched his second gold medal Sunday at the 2009 FIS Nordic Ski World Championships. Demong followed that lead to bring in the bronze medal in the normal hill/10k event. Norwegian Jan Schmid got the silver medal.
Lodwick and Demong’s results mark the first time two American nordic combined athletes have made the World Championship podium together.
“I think the most important thing about today, and probably the coolest, is that I am able to share this podium with another teammate,” Lodwick said. “I cannot believe I get to share this World Championship podium with a teammate.”
Dust off the record book and get out a fresh quill because what American nordic combined skiers Todd Lodwick and Bill Demong are doing in the Czech Republic is well beyond anything known within U.S. borders.
Lodwick, the recently unretired veteran, notched his second gold medal Sunday at the 2009 FIS Nordic Ski World Championships. Demong followed that lead to bring in the bronze medal in the normal hill/10k event. Norwegian Jan Schmid got the silver medal.
Lodwick and Demong’s results mark the first time two American nordic combined athletes have made the World Championship podium together.
“I think the most important thing about today, and probably the coolest, is that I am able to share this podium with another teammate,” Lodwick said. “I cannot believe I get to share this World Championship podium with a teammate.”
Lodwick took the early lead winning the jumping portion of the event but needed to out run Schmid on the final up hill of the cross country leg to ice his second gold medal in three days. He powered into the stadium alone, raised his arms in triumph and brought it home 13 seconds ahead of Schmid.
“I knew from the start, I didn’t want to say it to myself, but I knew that I could get a medal.,” Lodwick said. “It started with the jumping today. I’ve been jumping really well all week and had a good feeling coming from steamboat. The hill in Steamboat and the hill here in Liberec are similar and I knew if I was jumping well in Steamboat that I could come here and do well.”
Demong had been 12th after the jumping leg but had the second fastest time for the 10k and finished 33.5 seconds behind his teammate for the double medal showing.
“It feels really good. Having watched Todd the other day I was really motivated and it made me feel two ways. One, I’m happy for him, for the Team and I know we can carry this success, and the second thing is, I want to be up there, too,” Demong said.
After competing in four Olympic Games and seven World Championships with no medals to show for it, Lodwick retired in 2006. He made the decision to return to competition at 32 with the goal of becoming a World Champion.
“This is surreal. I knew that if I wanted to come back and ski it was going to be a long hard road. I’ve never trained so hard and had so much fun training,” Lodwick said. “I knew in my heart that I wanted to come back and still compete, it’s just a matter of a different mindset.”
The USA is now leading in the medals race with three gold and a silver through eight of 20 events. The men of the nordic combined team will look to add to the tally in Thursday’s team event.
“We have to take care of business. The team event is four guys jumping far and skiing fast. We’ll take it step by step and compete well,” Lodwick said.
Rank | Bib | FIS Code | Name | Year | Nation | Result | |
1 | 1 | 27 | LODWICK Todd | 1976 | USA | 24:22.3 | |
2 | 3 | 1650 | SCHMID Jan | 1983 | NOR | 24:35.3 | |
3 | 12 | 222 | DEMONG Bill | 1980 | USA | 24:55.8 | |
4 | 2 | 1156 | KOIVURANTA Anssi | 1988 | FIN | 25:17.0 | |
5 | 14 | 205 | KOBAYASHI Norihito | 1982 | JPN | 25:25.2 | |
6 | 18 | 768 | MINATO Yusuke | 1985 | JPN | 25:33.7 | |
7 | 19 | 200 | HASENEY Sebastian | 1978 | GER | 25:37.2 | |
8 | 5 | 111 | BIELER Christoph | 1977 | AUT | 25:45.0 | |
9 | 7 | 351 | EDELMANN Tino | 1985 | GER | 25:50.0 | |
10 | 13 | 8 | STECHER Mario | 1977 | AUT | 25:50.0 | |
11 | 4 | 252 | GRUBER Bernhard | 1982 | AUT | 25:52.6 | |
12 | 10 | 606 | BRAUD Francois | 1986 | FRA | 26:04.8 | |
13 | 6 | 74 | ACKERMANN Ronny | 1977 | GER | 26:14.6 | |
14 | 29 | 203 | HEER Ronny | 1981 | SUI | 26:26.3 | |
15 | 17 | 1152 | RYYNAENEN Janne | 1988 | FIN | 26:29.7 | |
16 | 26 | 247 | SPILLANE Johnny | 1980 | USA | 26:33.2 | |
17 | 44 | 973 | MOAN Magnus-H. | 1983 | NOR | 26:44.9 | |
18 | 15 | 198 | TALLUS Jaakko | 1981 | FIN | 26:49.5 | |
19 | 28 | 680 | TANDE Petter L. | 1985 | NOR | 26:56.8 | |
20 | 33 | 349 | HURSCHLER Seppi | 1983 | SUI | 27:00.2 | |
21 | 20 | 216 | TAKAHASHI Daito | 1980 | JPN | 27:02.4 | |
22 | 11 | 1228 | LEETOJA Aldo | 1988 | EST | 27:12.8 | |
23 | 24 | 610 | LAMY CHAPPUIS Jason | 1986 | FRA | 27:14.1 | |
24 | 37 | 1029 | PITTIN Alessandro | 1990 | ITA | 27:24.3 | |
25 | 43 | 1149 | KOKSLIEN Mikko | 1985 | NOR | 27:26.5 | |
26 | 34 | 1464 | RUNGGALDIER Lukas | 1987 | ITA | 27:26.6 | |
27 | 25 | 459 | LACROIX Sebastien | 1983 | FRA | 27:26.8 | |
28 | 40 | 643 | MICHIELLI Giuseppe | 1985 | ITA | 27:32.3 | |
29 | 16 | 960 | MASLENNIKOV Sergej | 1982 | RUS | 27:40.3 | |
30 | 9 | 214 | DENIFL Wilhelm | 1980 | AUT | 27:43.3 | |
31 | 21 | 215 | CHURAVY Pavel | 1977 | CZE | 27:51.3 | |
32 | 32 | 715 | ORANIC Mitja | 1986 | SLO | 28:15.2 | |
33 | 53 | 1136 | WATABE Akito | 1988 | JPN | 28:20.3 | |
34 | 27 | 1050 | FRENZEL Eric | 1988 | GER | 28:22.8 | |
35 | 31 | 1485 | NURMSALU Kaarel | 1991 | EST | 28:33.3 | |
36 | 50 | 722 | TRACHUK Volodymyr | 1985 | UKR | 28:41.6 | |
37 | 8 | 694 | VODSEDALEK Ales | 1985 | CZE | 28:41.9 | |
38 | 23 | 1418 | BERLOT Gasper | 1990 | SLO | 28:43.0 | |
39 | 22 | 1488 | TIIRMAA Karl-August | 1989 | EST | 28:48.5 | |
40 | 39 | 1164 | FELISAZ Jonathan | 1985 | FRA | 28:50.9 | |
41 | 35 | 623 | HUG Tim | 1987 | SUI | 29:05.8 | |
42 | 42 | 249 | MYSLICKI Jason | 1977 | CAN | 29:13.1 | |
43 | 36 | 164 | SAVILL Wesley | 1989 | CAN | 29:18.9 | |
44 | 54 | 1486 | PIHO Kail | 1991 | EST | 29:22.1 | |
45 | 41 | 257 | KIRCHEISEN Bjoern | 1983 | GER | 29:27.6 | |
46 | 30 | 357 | SOBOLEV Ivan | 1983 | BLR | 29:42.8 | |
47 | 38 | 985 | VORONIN Konstantin | 1983 | RUS | 30:04.3 | |
48 | 47 | 1151 | KAMENEV Anton | 1986 | RUS | 30:44.2 | |
49 | 58 | 1410 | BAUER Armin | 1990 | ITA | 30:52.5 | |
50 | 52 | 1540 | PARKHOMCHUK Andriy | 1988 | UKR | 30:59.7 | |
51 | 45 | 1548 | HAERTULL Jim | 1990 | FIN | 31:01.2 | |
52 | 46 | 1531 | SOKOLENKO Konstantin | 1987 | KAZ | 31:09.1 | |
53 | 55 | 1641 | KHOMIN Oleksiy | 1990 | UKR | 31:16.9 | |
54 | 51 | 989 | CAMEROTA Brett | 1985 | USA | 31:21.3 | |
55 | 57 | 1434 | JELENKO Marjan | 1991 | SLO | 32:06.3 | |
Did not start | |||||||
60 | 416 | SLAVIK Tomas | 1981 | CZE | |||
59 | 1534 | POLUSHIN Vladimir | 1988 | KAZ | |||
56 | 1479 | PANIN Ivan | 1987 | RUS | |||
48 | 1003 | DVORAK Miroslav | 1987 | CZE | |||
Did not finish | |||||||
49 | 1532 | SHARABAYEV Sergej | 1986 | KAZ |