Olympic athletes from Finland have grabbed the top two spots in the Nordic Combined event at the 2002 Winter Games.
Samppa Lajunen is the Nordic Combined gold medalist. He had finished third in the ski jumping portion on Saturday, and on Sunday he started the 15-kilometer cross-country skiing segment 53 seconds behind leader and fellow-Finn Jaakko Tallus.
Lajunen caught up and passed Tallus, and won the gold medal by about 25 seconds. He won the silver medal at the last Olympics. Tallus, a first time Olympian, took the silver medal. World Cup leader Felix Gottwald of Austria won the bronze medal. He was fastest in the cross-country portion, but had finished 11th in the ski jumping.
Todd Lodwick was the best hope for the United States, which has never won an Olympic medal in Nordic Combined. He was seventh heading into the cross-country segment and ended up seventh overall, nearly 2 1/2 minutes off the pace. A great improvement over his 20th place at the Nagano Olympics four-years ago.