STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Ski Town USA’s passion for nordic combined skiing took over Gondola Square on Friday afternoon with a celebration for world champions Todd Lodwick and Bill Demong.
Lodwick, a Steamboat native who grew up training on venerable Howelsen Hill, won two gold medals at last month’s nordic world championships in Liberec, Czech Republic. Demong, a former Steamboat resident who lives in Park City, Utah, claimed gold and bronze. Between them, they won every individual event at worlds.
“It comes from the bottom of my heart — thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,” Lodwick told an apres-ski crowd that included several of Steamboat’s former Olympians. “It’s people like yourselves in this town that believe in athletes like us that produce these results. Without you guys, without this town, the ski area, the city of Steamboat, we would not be champions.”
Alpine ski great Billy Kidd drove to Steamboat from Vail, where he was participating in the American Ski Classic, to take part in the festivities.
“This is a big deal,” said Kidd, the 1964 Olympic slalom silver medalist. “This is a huge deal.”
During nordic worlds, Kidd brought doughnuts one morning to Howelsen Hill for a group of telemark racers who wound up watching video of the nordic combined races in the clubhouse. Demong won that day.
“The place almost came down, they were screaming so loud,” said Rick DeVos, executive director of the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club.
Demong is from Vermontville, N.Y., but moved here when he was in high school to train with his teammates year-round. He moved to Park City when the team relocated there after the 2002 season.
“This is the nest,” said Demong, 28. “This is where it all started and where it continues to support athletes in nordic combined. It’s awesome. I never want to leave.”
Steamboat has produced 65 Olympians representing more than 130 trips to the Games, but what Lodwick achieved after a two-year retirement was a special thrill.
“This community loves this,” Devos said. “In the grocery stores, people are knocking me down, going, ‘Oh, my gosh, can you believe it?’ ”
Between Lodwick, Demong and Steamboat native Johnny Spillane, who won a gold medal at the 2003 world championships, the U.S. nordic combined team has won six worlds medals since the 2002 Olympics. All were principally fashioned in Steamboat.
“I’ve had a lot of free sandwiches lately,” said Lodwick, 32. “It shows the town embraces their athletes. That’s the real story behind Steamboat’s athletes. When they do well, it’s a reason to have a party, and they really do it.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
