PRAGELATO, Italy - Georg Hettich refused to think about a gold medal despite two strong rounds of jumping that gave him the lead in the Nordic combined individual event.

He’d been in this situation before, only to struggle in the cross-country portion and fail to reach the top of the podium.

This time, the 27-year-old German held on to his slim lead from the jump on the way to a surprising victory Saturday.

“I never won a World Cup competition,” said Hettich, still red-faced about an hour after his finish. “I won jumping, but never won the whole competition. This morning when I won (jumping), I was feeling happy but I didn’t try to think about winning a gold medal.”

Hettich finished the 15-kilometer cross-country race in 39 minutes, 44.6 seconds, 9.8 seconds ahead of surging silver medalist Felix Gottwald of Austria, while Norway’s Magnus Moan took home the bronze in a close finish with countryman Petter Tande.

“I am very surprised,” Hettich said. “I still haven’t realized fully what I’ve done.”

He had a right to be taken aback. Finland’s Hannu Manninen was favored to win this event, with Hettich hardly considered a contender.

Manninen, the leading Nordic combined competitor in recent years with 11 World Cup victories this season, finished ninth after entering the Turin Olympics as the man to beat — still leaving him without an individual medal in his fourth and probably final games.

“I hoped that I could have been closer to the top,” said Manninen, who still felt confident after the jump that he could reach the podium. “The skiing didn’t feel normal. It felt sticky, and when Magnus passed me after the 9-kilometer mark, I knew that I wasn’t going to catch them.”

American Todd Lodwick had a frustrating day to kick off his fourth and last Olympics, placing eighth after a seventh-place showing in this event in the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

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The 29-year-old Lodwick, who had jumps of 97 and 95.5 meters and was in 13th place with 232 points after the jumping, had a stomach flu earlier in the week and was dealing with a congested head Saturday.

“I feel like I’m wearing a football field on my head,” Lodwick said after the jumps.

His personal coach, Tom Steitz, didn’t even want Lodwick to race Saturday in order to save his energy for the team event Wednesday and then the sprint. After Lodwick checked in with U.S. doctors and warmed up, he convinced Steitz he could go.

“I can’t say I’m disappointed. A head cold got in the way,” Lodwick said. “I went out and tried to ski easy and not stress throughout the whole race. ... Fourth through 20th are the same — they’re not the podium. But I’ll be satisfied with a top-10 for sure.”

Steitz, who has been working with Lodwick since the skier was a teen, would have held Lodwick out Saturday if he had his way — so Steitz was happy with the results given the circumstances.

“There were times in the U.S. we would have killed for top-10, but our expectations are much higher now,” said Steitz, also Lodwick’s neighbor in Steamboat Springs, Colo.

Manninen made up 17 seconds in one climb during the second lap after starting the race in the eighth spot and 1:38 seconds behind Hettich. Manninen, who won gold in the team event four years ago, remains hopeful of winning a medal in the sprint Feb. 21.

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The individual competition featured two jumps on the normal hill and a 15-kilometer cross-country race.

Hettich had jumps of 101.5 and 104 meters on the normal hill earlier in the day for 262.5 points. That gave Hettich a two-second head start over Tande in the cross-country race.

Italian Alessandro Pittin kicked off the games with the first jump — and did so on his 16th birthday.

He finished his jumps to cheers of “Alessandro! Alessandro!” as he made his way out of the stadium dressed in a neon orange suit and wearing bib No. 1.

While athletes were disappointed with the small crowds — some said there were fewer fans than at many World Cup competitions — there were the Italian Alps’ version of cheerleaders wearing ski parkas and waving orange pompoms.

The points are based on distance of the jump, as well as judges’ ratings based on the athletes’ form in the air. Those points from the jumps are converted into time, with competitors starting the race at intervals based on those times.