2010 Olympic Nordic Combined was held at Whistler Olympic Park in Vancouver, British Columbia. Competition took place on February 14, February 23 and February 25. It is held every four years at the site of the Winter Olympics. Nordic combined skiing involves jumping followed by cross country skiing. The three events in the nordic combined are the individual normal hill, large hill and team event. In the individual normal hill, competitors complete a jump followed immediately by 10 kilometer cross country race. The large hill event follows the same format except that the jump is on a large hill compared to a normal hill. In the team event, four competitors jump on the large hill. The best team score starts the cross country portion, which is a relay event.http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-nordic-combined/additional-information/about-the-sport_146032TC.html Competitors to watch include Bill Demong, Todd Lodwick and Bryan Fletcher of the United States, Anssi Koivuranta and Hannu Manninen of Finland, Magnus Moan of Norway, Felix Gottwald of Austria, Ronny Ackerman of Germany and Norihito Kobayashi of Japan.http://www.nbcolympics.com/nordic-combined/athletes/index.html

Nordic combined skiing started in Norway in the mid 1800's. Individual nordic combined was a men's event since the first Winter Olympics in 1924, in Chamonix, France. The first team event at the Olympics was in Calgary in 1988 and in 2002 a sprint event was featured.http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-nordic-combined/additional-information/about-the-sport_146032TC.html Legendary nordic combined skiers are Samppa Lajunen of Finland, who won three gold and two silver medals, and Oddbjorn Hagen, who lead Norway to a silver medal in 1936.http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-athletes/legendary-athletes/oddbjørn-hagen-_94760Ac.html

February 14

The individual normal hill 10 kilometer competition round started at 10:00 am. Janne Ryyaenen of Finland finished fist with a distance of 105 meters and a total of 135.5 points. Tood Lodwick of the United States finished second with 127 points, which left him 34 seconds behind at the start of the 10 kilometer final. Christoph Bieler of Austria finished third with 125 points and 42 seconds behind Ryyaenen to start the final. Johnny Spillane of the United States finished fourth, Jason Lamy Chappius of France was fifth and Alessandro Pittin of Italy was sixth.http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-nordic-combined/schedule-and-results/individual-nh-10-km-cc---competition-round_ncm070a01wg.html

The 10 km cross country final was held at 1:45 pm. Janne Ryyaenen started first but fell off the pace and finished 26th, 1:34.5 behind. Todd Lodwick lead throughout much of the race but finished fourth, seven tenths of a second out of a medal. Allesandro Pittin finished just ahead of Lodwick for the bronze medal. Christoph Bieler, who started third, finished in 25th. Johnny Spillane won the silver medal, the first medal ever for the United States in nordic combined. Jason Lamy Chappius came from behind to win the gold medal by four tenths of a second with a time of 25:01.1.http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-nordic-combined/schedule-and-results/individual-nh-10-km-cc---10-km_ncm070b01kH.html

February 23

The team 4 x 5 km cross country was held at 10:30 pm. Ten teams participated. Finland score the most points in group one with 134.2. The United States had the highest point total in group two with 132.2. Austria lead with 131.0 points in group three and Finland scored the most points in group four with 132.0. Finland finished first overall with 507.0 points. The United States finished second with 505.8 and Austria was third with 479.9 points.http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-nordic-combined/schedule-and-results/team-4x5-km---competition-round_ncm490a01fi.html

The team 4 x 5 km relay was held at 2:00 pm. Ten teams participated. Austria had a team jump score of 479.9 and a ski time of 48:55.6 for an overall time of 49:31.6. They won the gold medal by 5.2 over the United States, which won the silver medal. Germany had a final time of 49:51.1 to win the bronze. France finished fourth, Norway came in fifth and Japan finished sixth.http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-nordic-combined/schedule-and-results/team-4x5-km---4x5-km-relay_ncm490b01kP.html

February 25

The individual large hill 10 km cross country was held at 11:00 am. Forty-six skiers competed. Bernhard Gruber of Austria finished first with a jump of 134.0 meters and a score of 127.0. He lead Johnny Spillane of the United States by 8.5 points. Janne Ryynaenen of Finland scored 117.0 to finished third, 1.5 points behind Spillane. Christoph Bieler of Austra and Francios Braud of France finished fourth and fifth.http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-nordic-combined/schedule-and-results/individual-lh-10-km-cc---competition-round_ncm690a01Vi.html

The individual large hill 10 km cross country final was held at 2:00 pm. Bill Demong of the United States scored 115.5 on his jump and a finish time of 24:46.9 to win the gold. He defeated teammate Johnny Spillane by 4.0 seconds. Bernhard Gruber won the bronze, 10.8 seconds behind Demong. Hannu Manninen finished fourth and Pavel Churavy of the Czech Republic finished fifth.http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-nordic-combined/schedule-and-results/individual-lh-10-km-cc---10-km_ncm690b01sd.html

Winners

• February 14
• 9:00 - Olympic Nordic Combined Normal Hill
• 13:45 - Nordic Combined - Individual NH/10 km Medal Event

• February 23
• 9:00 - Olympic Nordic Combined Team Event
• 13:00 - Nordic Combined - Team/4x5 km - 4x5 km Relay Medal Event

• February 25
• 9:00 - Olympic Nordic Combined Large Hill
• 13:00 - Nordic Combined - Individual LH/10 km Medal Event