ZHANGJIAKOU, China (AP) 鈥� Vinzenz Geiger of Germany won Olympic gold in Nordic combined Wednesday, rallying from a 1-minute, 26-second deficit to cross the finish line first in a 10K cross-country race after ranking 11th in ski jumping.
Joergen Graabak of Norway finished eight-tenths of a second behind, winning silver. Lukas Greiderer of Austria earned bronze after starting the cross-country skiing phase of the competition in second place.
Ryota Yamamoto of Japan jumped 108 meters (354 feet) and had 133 points in the first part of event, giving him a 38-second lead over the pack, but faded from contention halfway through the grueling cross-country race.
Top-ranked Johannes Lampater of Austria was fourth.
In the sport that forces athletes to have ski jumping and cross-country skiing skills, the athlete who jumps the farthest and impresses judges the most gets to start the cross-country portion of the Nordic combined with a lead.
The rest of the field follows, in order of the finish in ski jumping. The athlete who crosses the finish line first wins gold, and that was Geiger.
Four of the top seven Nordic combined athletes, including second-ranked , recently tested positive for COVID-19 and did not compete on the normal hill and 10K race.
Fifth-ranked and three-time Olympic champion Eric Frenzel of Germany, sixth-ranked Kristjan Ilves of Estonia and seventh-ranked Terence Weber of Germany also did not compete in the first of three medal events after testing positive.
Each of them can potentially make a comeback on the large hill Tuesday and the team competition next Thursday.
Frenzel won gold on the normal hill at the 2018 Olympics and Rydzek earned gold on the large hill.
Nordic combined has been part of the Winter Olympics since the first edition in 1924. It鈥檚 .
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Larry Lage, The Associated Press
