SOLDIER HOLLOW — Four guys named Todd, Billy, Johnny and Matt came close to doing something that four guys named Todd, Billy, Johnny and Matt — or with names anything close — have never done.
In the ancient winter sport of nordic combined, they nearly medaled for America.
Heavy on the nearly.
Team USA was in third place coming into the cross country racing half of the competition here Sunday afternoon. The day before, team members Todd Lodwick, Billy Demong, Johnny Spillane and Matt Dayton had overachieved at the Olympic Park jumping hill to rank behind only Finland and Japan and ahead of the likes of Austria, Germany and Norway. One more day of overachieving and a first-ever United States podium finish in Olympic nordic combined would be theirs.
But it is not easy packing along expectations of, oh, at least 200 years, especially when the Austrians and Germans are in hot pursuit.
The good news: the U.S. guys passed Japan. The bad news: the Germans and Austrians passed them. They finished fourth overall for the highest American finish ever, but, still, one step off the podium.
As U.S. leadoff man Todd Lodwick said, "I guess it was a little altitude, a little hot weather and a little pressure . . . "
Then he couldn't talk anymore as he turned away to choke back his bitter disappointment.
The Americans wanted it badly. Maybe too badly.
It's the Olympics. It happens.
You'd never know it by all the rings going on in Salt Lake's Olympic circus, but go back far enough in the history of winter sports and one by one they'll drop off until you're left only with these two: jumping and cross country skiing. Or, as they say in the old country, nordic jumping and nordic skiing.
Long before downhill skiing or bobsled tracks or short track speedskating existed, the first winter sports champions in the northern lands of Sweden, Norway and Finland did them both — jumping and skiing. The one who jumped the farthest and skied the fastest at legendary competitions such as Norway's Holmenkollen was the one who hired the agent and got the endorsement deals and wore sunglasses indoors.
At the first Winter Olympics in France in 1924, nordic combined was one of 13 inaugural events. Norwegians went gold-silver-bronze, followed by another Norwegian and a Swede. No Americans placed.
Americans have been trying to catch up ever since, and at that, sometimes not all that hard. Not, that is, until a few winters ago when Todd, Billy, Johnny and Matt started living and training and eating and training and sleeping and training together in Steamboat Springs, Colo., itself a pretty decent facsimile of the old country.
Led by Lodwick, these four lean, mean young Americans began making a mark on the World Cup in the years leading up to the Salt Lake Games. With the Olympics on American snow, the conversation naturally turned to . . . medal talk.
And when the team nailed its jumps Saturday, that talk really heated up.
Maybe the Americans would have medals around their necks today if they hadn't had all night to think about it; if the media and public hadn't caught on to the historic possibilities.
"I think we all were dreaming about it," said Matt.
"We tried to psyche ourselves to have the race of a lifetime," said Billy.
"This was our day to shine and clouds came in and dumped on us," said Todd, who added, "Toughest race I've ever had."
It was Lodwick who took the first leg when the U.S. team fell out of third place and into fourth. It was by a mere two seconds to the Germans, but the die was cast. At the end of two legs the bronze medal was 12 seconds away, at the end of three, 33 seconds, and at the end of the final leg after Germany and Austria staged a furious duel for the silver (Germany prevailed), the podium was a full minute and a second beyond the American's grasp.
But the Norwegians — forced to factor in an awful day of jumping — were almost a minute and a half behind that.
Todd, Billy, Johnny and Matt might want to hold that thought until that other thought passes.
Lee Benson's column runs daily during the Olympics. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.