Todd Lodwick reversed his retirement from nordic combined skiing after two years working in real estate because he wanted to fill the only void on his otherwise glittering record — the lack of a medal at the world championships or Olympics.
The Steamboat Springs native made the most of his comeback today, winning a gold medal in the first of four nordic combined events at the nordic ski world championships in Liberec, Czech Republic.
“It’s really surreal,” Lodwick said. “It is a true fairy tale.”
Nordic combined is a two-part event combining ski jumping and cross country racing, normally in that order, but not in this case.
Lodwick had the fastest time in Thursday’s cross country race and then had to sleep on the lead because weather forced postponement of the jumping until today. There are two more individual events for the nordic combined skiers at worlds — Sunday and next Saturday — plus a four-man team competition next Thursday.
“I’ve never trained so hard and had so much fun training than I did this past year,” Lodwick said. “My motivation was my family, the world championships and the Olympic Games in 300 and some-odd days.”
One thing that drives Lodwick — and the entire U.S. nordic combined team — was its fourth-place finish in the team competition at the 2002 Olympics after the team seemed poised to win its first-ever Olympic medal.
“It will always haunt me,” Lodwick said. “I felt like I had to get away, but I couldn’t stay away for long. This is a sport you have to love. I can’t tell you how much fun I’m having. Winning, of course, makes it easy. But in all honesty, I had so much fun training this summer, I had so much fun being around the team, the support from Steamboat and all my friends, from the U.S. Ski Team, from coaches and teammates with open arms … It’s really surreal.”
Lodwick becomes the third American to win a world championships medal in nordic combined after Johnny Spillane (gold, 2003) and Bill Demong (silver, 2007). Spillane, whose medal was the first world championship title for an American in a nordic sport, also is a Steamboat native.
“I love Billy, I love Johnny, they’re both like sons,” said former U.S. nordic coach Tom Steitz, also of Steamboat. “I think it’s a fair statement — and I think Johnny and Billy would agree — that they have medals because of Todd. We all owe Todd a debt of gratitude because there were years when he single-handedly carried the program. That’s a tremendous burden to bear.
“If anyone deserves it, it’s Todd. I think everybody wants to say thanks to Todd.”
Lodwick retired after the 2006 Olympics as the winningest American on the nordic combined World Cup. He returned to the World Cup in December, finishing second twice his first weekend back.
Lodwick’s gold medal was the second for the U.S. today. Lindsey Van of Park City, Utah, became the first female world champion in ski jumping.
