Johnny Spillane could have retired after the Vancouver Games, content with three silver medals and the distinction of becoming the first American to claim an Olympic medal in nordic combined.
And he probably would have, if not for one tantalizing event on this year’s schedule: The biennial nordic world championships will be held Feb. 22-March 4 in Oslo, Norway, the most revered venue in the sport.
But now the Steamboat Springs native is wondering if he’ll make it there. And he knows if he does, he won’t be in peak condition.
On July 12, Spillane was in Lake Placid, N.Y., to attend teammate Bill Demong’s wedding. A bunch of the guys went “cliff jumping” into a lake from about 75 feet. Spillane ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament in his left knee. He also damaged the meniscus.
“It just popped when I hit the water,” Spillane said last week. “When I hit, it was just enough to pop it.”
Spillane had two surgeries on his other knee in August 2010 and managed to get in shape in time for Vancouver, but this time it might be tougher. He wasn’t allowed to go cross country skiing until a few weeks ago, and began jumping only last week.
“As soon as I was able to get on a bike, it started snowing,” said Spillane, who would have preferred training on a road bike. “I did everything I could, but most of it was on stationary bikes.”
The nordic world championships are sure to attract huge throngs of spectators. Skiing for hunting, transportation and warfare in Norway goes back thousands of years. It also appears in Norse mythology.
Sondre Norheim, the “father of modern skiing,” originated skiing as sport there in the 19th century. Holmenkollen, where the world championships will be held, has hosted ski jumping competitions since 1892. Crowds of 100,000 are typical for World Cup events.
I skied on the cross country trails there in 1994, en route to the Lillehammer Olympics. At one point a young woman skiing in front of me pulled to the side of the trail and lit a cigarette. I was shocked until it dawned on me: In Norway, even the smokers are cross country skiers.
No wonder Spillane, Demong and Todd Lodwick decided to come back for one more season after their hugely successful Olympics. Demong won a gold medal, and the three of them — along with Brett Camerota — took silver in the team event. This for a team that had never won an Olympic medal before.
It wasn’t the first time Spillane made nordic combined history for the U.S. In 2003, he won a gold medal at the world championships, becoming the first American to take gold in any nordic sport.
Can he get fit enough to be a contender in Oslo just more than two months from now?
“Well, that’s my goal, to do everything I can to be in as good a shape as possible,” Spillane said. “We’ll just have to see. This is a pretty tough injury, with a pretty long recovery. It’s going to be harder than some of the other (injuries) I’ve dealt with, because of the timing of it. My goal is to do well in the world championships. I’ll just do everything I can, trying to be ready.”
After getting the go-ahead from his doctor last week, Spillane began jump training for the first time since before the injury. It went well.
“I don’t think I was going to win any World Cups, but that really wasn’t the point,” Spillane said. “It was relatively pain-free, and I got off to a decent start. It gives me something to work on.”
Lodwick, also a Steamboat native, skipped the first two World Cups of the season but returned to the tour last weekend, finishing fourth and 18th in Ramsau, Austria.
Since 2003, Spillane has had eight surgeries, including four on his shoulders, so he knows all about finding silver linings. In this case, it involves the birth of his first child in September.
“Had I not hurt my knee, I would have been in Europe when she was born, because she came five weeks early,” Spillane said. “I would have missed it, and I would have been in big trouble.”
