Americans win silver in Nordic combined

WHISTLER MOUNTAIN, British Columbia - First, Johnny Spillane.

Then, the rest of the boys.

As heartwarming as Spillane's silver medal in the Nordic combined was on Valentine's Day, America's team silver yesterday paid off years of heart-wrenching near-misses. They are the first American medals in the event.

"For sure, we'd have liked to win," Spillane said. "To walk away with a silver - we can hold our heads up high."

The U.S. took fourth in 2002 and seventh in 2006, but stood in second after the ski-jumping portion of the competition, earning a start in the cross-country portion only 2 seconds behind Finland. The strong Austrian team, defending its Olympic gold, quickly made up a 36-second start deficit, 34 seconds behind the Americans, and won the four-man, 5-kilometer relay by 5.2 seconds. Germany finished 19.5 seconds behind for bronze.

Finland faded to seventh.

The U.S. and Austria had made it a two-team race after two legs. It marks the first Olympic medals for Todd Lodwick and Billy Demong, longtime Olympic Nordic hopefuls and former world champions who were joined by Spillane and Brett Camerota. Demong, skiing as rain fell and slowed the course, slipped heading into the stadium and failed to hold off Mario Stecher in the final stages of the last leg.

"We had a little better skis," Stecher said.

And a little better kick. Regardless, Lodwick and his teammates are happy: "This is huge for us, huge for the team, huge for the morale of everybody."

Camerota, the team's weakest link, carried his weight in the opening leg and kept the U.S. in it.

Ted Ligety entered the Olympics the top-ranked skier in giant slalom, the defending gold medalist in the super-combined from 2006 at Turin, poised to lead Team USA to whatever heights it reached.

But Ligety finished ninth yesterday in the giant slalom, completing a trio of disappointing Olympic performances. Ligety explained how a TV delay and a sudden dusting of snow slowed the course just before his second run, sabotaging his chances of making up the 0.60 seconds he was out of first. He wound up 1.28 seconds out of first, 0.67 seconds out of medal contention.

Ligety, 25, took fifth in the super-combined and 19th in the Super-G. Meanwhile, enigmatic teammate Bode Miller has medaled once in each hue, and young Andrew Weibrecht snagged a stunning bronze in the Super-G, half of the national-record eight medals the U.S. ski team has won.

"Of all the guys on the team, I should've been getting medals," said Ligety, who has the slalom left to ski, on Saturday. "Our success has been phenomenal. It's a bummer not to be a part of it."