US Olympian once skied at Trailblazer’s house. He just passed History in Italy.

American cross-country skier Ben Ogden made history Wednesday when he and Gus Schumacher secured silver in the men’s team sprint, making Ogden the most decorated American man in Olympic sport.

Earlier in the Games, he made a fifty-year medal dry for the American men in the sport when he took silver in the individual sprint competition.

The last American man to stand on the podium in sports? Bill Koch, a familiar face for Ogden who won silver in the men’s 30 km in 1976.

Ogden, in an interview with Vermont Public’s “The Sports Report” recalled skiing at Koch’s home while growing up in the Green Mountain State, adding that the American cross-country skiing pioneer showed him his silver medal and other awards he acquired during his iconic career.

Koch — who transformed his Vermont backyard into a terrain park more than 20 years ago when his son was young — told Outside magazine that the home course was “skill-oriented” from the start, with one slope that allowed skiers to “fly like 35 or 40 feet in the air” and runs covered in soft snow.

The course helped sharpen the skills of Koch’s now 24-year-old sonWill and Ogden’s NCAA champion older sisterKatharine – both of whom went on to ski on the world stage.

Ben Ogden, who grew up not far from the Kochs, was a regular at the park along with his two sisters and told the magazine that the sessions helped him learn to ski well.

In one 14 year old clip shared On his Instagram page last week, Ogden highlighted “one of many backyard jump sessions” at Koch’s home during the “good old days” as a kid in Vermont.

He told Vermont Public that Koch showed him that American men are also capable of success in cross-country skiing.

“This is such a Scandinavian-dominated sport, but Bill was a legend, and he taught us when we were young that if we put our minds to it, we can achieve what we want, just like he did,” Ogden said of the fellow Vermont native.

“And I’m really honored to be the one to go home first for the men since him, but there will be more to come. I have a lot of confidence in it. So Bill’s work is only just starting to pay off.”