Olympic Gold Medal
With five wins and nine podiums, Lamy-Chappuis entered the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada as the World Cup leader in Nordic combined. On Sunday, February 14, Lamy-Chappuis won the Olympic gold medal in the 10km individual normal hill. His winning time was 25:47.1 and came after a frantic finish that involved a last-minute push on his part to beat American Johnny Spillane by .4 seconds. Spillane held the lead until Lamy-Chappuis' final sprint at the finish line eked out the win. It was the closest finish in Olympic Nordic combined history. Earlier in the day, he had finished fifth in the ski jump portion of the competition, one spot behind Spillane. Lamy-Chappuis said after the race that he "honestly didn't think could get the gold medal" after seeing Spillane's lead following the last hill. He attributed his win to Spillane's decision to slow down while entering the stadium, leaving Lamy-Chappuis with the opportunity to glide faster in the final stretch.
The win made Lamy-Chappuis France's second gold medalist of the 2010 Winter Olympics, following Vincent Jay's gold medal earlier in the day in the men's 10 km biathlon sprint. Lamy-Chappuis told the American media that he felt significant pressure from the French media to win the gold medal due to his World Cup success and the belief in the French media that he was "the best chance of a medal for France."
Read more about this topic: Jason Lamy-Chappuis
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