STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Ski Town USA’s nordic combined Olympic medalists were welcomed home in inimitable Steamboat fashion Friday night.
A five-block stretch of the town’s main street, Lincoln Avenue, was covered with snow trucked in from nearby slopes to serve as a fitting parade route. The Steamboat Springs High School band led the parade, “marching” on skis, and each of the nordic combined Olympians had his own horse- drawn sleigh, accompanied by children on skis.
The parade ended at a stage erected in front of the Routt County courthouse, where a fifth-grade music class sang the national anthem and waved American flags. A crowd of between 2,000 and 3,000 cheered wildly.
After alighting from his sleigh, Steamboat native Johnny Spillane came to the stage high-fiving every child he could find, his three Olympic silver medals dangling from his neck.
“This town is a very, very special place,” Spillane told the crowd. “Most towns around the country, kids grow up thinking about hitting home runs in the bottom of the ninth inning of the World Series. In Steamboat Springs, they grow up dreaming about getting Olympic medals. We can’t thank you enough.”
Todd Lodwick held up his silver medal and said, “This means a ton to me, and I kind of consider this a little bit of Steamboat’s medal.”
Gold medalist Bill Demong grew up near Lake Placid, N.Y., but lived here for several years and acknowledged what Steamboat means to him.
“My Olympic dreams started when I was 5 or 6, but my Olympic journey started when I moved here,” said Demong, the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in nordic skiing. “What an awesome journey, what an awesome town. You guys rock.”
The Olympians visited three schools Friday morning and spent most of the afternoon at a “meet and greet” in Olympian Hall at Howelsen Hill, signing autographs and posing for pictures.
Lodwick, who came out of retirement to compete in his fifth Olympics and is leaning toward returning for another season, said he’s spent a lot of his time since Vancouver playing the role of “Mr. Mom” with his two young children.
“Kids put things into perspective,” Lodwick said before the meet and greet. “Their biggest concern is how much peanut butter and how much jam they want on their sandwich. We built a huge snowman (Thursday) on the deck. Just having a lot of fun.”
The festivities were called a “Hometown Heroes Celebration,” but Demong has been thinking about what it means to be a hero. He’s decided it means using his success to help others.
“I think what you do after the medal determines whether or not you really are a hero,” Demong said. “That’s something that kind of makes my heart beat a little faster, to think: Do I have the stamina to take this as far as it should go? Not from a personal side, but from what could be done with having some Olympic medals.”
That process begins today, when the Olympians leave for a two-week tour of military installations in the Middle East.
“I’m really excited,” Spillane said. “It’s going to be something we will remember for the rest of our lives. It’s going to be something none of us has ever done, in places we’ve never gone or never will go again. It’s going to be fun to see the troops, and hopefully they’ll be psyched about us coming over there.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
