RUMFORD – No prospective sports reunion is rife with more obstacles than a United States Olympic team.

The country is too big, the contestants too steeped in family and career and too far separated from their fabulous fortnight.

As the story goes, not even the miraculous 1980 U.S. hockey team ever successfully reconvened both coaches and all 20 players under one roof after their Lake Placid medal ceremony. One or two always missed the party.

Demise and distance notwithstanding, something about the close-knit nature of his sport convinced 1952 U.S. Nordic skier John Caldwell it could happen.

When he learned of friend John Burton’s near-death experience last year and former colleague Wendall “Chummy” Broomhall’s impending retirement as an organizer of ski events, Caldwell was persuaded that it had to happen.

Thursday, on Burton’s 86th birthday, that dream was realized with a flood of tears and reminiscences in a luncheon ceremony at Black Mountain of Maine. All seven surviving members returned to the village where their Olympic journey began.

“I sort of had the idea because I heard it might be Chummy’s last year organizing events up here,” said Caldwell, 80, a Dartmouth College graduate living in Putney, Vt. “I said we ought to go up there and be with him for a while, and here we are.”

Broomhall, 89, was the oldest member of the team and one of two River Valley natives to maximize home-snow advantage when the ’52 trials were relocated to downtown Rumford due to a dearth of the white stuff in upstate New York.

The late Bob Pidacks upset national combined champion Ted Farwell to win the 18-kilometer Olympic preliminary. His Chisholm Ski Club teammate, Broomhall, claimed fifth.

In a Nordic discipline dominated by its Scandinavian namesakes, Farwell wound up the best American Olympic finisher that year, 11th in Nordic combined and 43rd in the 18K.

More than a half-century after their Olympic journey, the elder statesmen treasure their legacy as trendsetters.

“John Caldwell said we were going to have a reunion. But then he said it was going to be in Rumford, Maine, and these guys have been super,” said Farwell, 78, of Steamboat Springs, Colo. “It’s appropriate for the Nordic combined people here that we won three gold medals at the world championship two weeks ago.”

Todd Lodwick took two of those titles, with Bill Demong claiming the other. Lodwick’s victory Feb. 21 represented the first world crown by a U.S. Nordic combined skier since 2003.

Joining Broomhall, Caldwell, Burton and Farwell on Thursday were George Hovland of Duluth, Minn., Tom Jacobs of Glens Falls, N.Y., and A. Paul Wegeman of Steamboat Springs, all 82.

Pidacks died 10 winters ago at his adopted Florida home. Coach Leif Odemark is also deceased.

There’s no disputing the health and vitality of those left behind. Broomhall and Hovland both proudly wore their original, blue team sweaters, complete with the familiar Olympic logo.

“I’m pretty emotional right now. It’s special,” said Hovland, whose post-Olympic resume includes the building of a ski area. “I’ve seen John Burton quite a bit because he also lives in Minnesota. We almost lost him six months ago. I’ve only seen Chummy once at Bretton Woods. I saw him from about half a mile away on the ski trials, and I could spot that body style.”

Broomhall’s land grant was instrumental in the 1962 opening of Black Mountain.

A member of multiple skiing halls of fame, including the national museum, Broomhall competed in three Olympics and served in World War II.

“It’s quite a thing,” the quiet skiing guru said of the reunion.

So was the original gathering, recalled Caldwell, who spent Thursday morning watching one of his grandchildren navigate the Broomhall trails in the NCAA classical championship race.

“They had two tryouts. One was at Berlin (N.H.), the other one over here. Rumford hosted the world championships in 1950, so when they couldn’t do it at Lake Placid they figured that they ran the world championships, surely they could run one Olympic tryout,” Caldwell said. “I did well enough to make the team. Sometimes I used to out-jump the hill or something, but I always jumped well in Rumford.”

Caldwell invested most of his adult life in the sport. He penned a how-to book on cross-country skiing that has been reprinted eight times. As a coach, his list of Olympians includes Bill Koch and son Tim Caldwell.

A frail economy has some in the skiing industry concerned about its family tree and what might be left as a remnant from this generation of skiers.

Wegeman, for one, is ebullient about the future after his return to Maine.

“I see a spirit here that I think is an undying spirit. This is an American spirit that I see all around here, from the minute I walked into the kitchen. From the moment I saw all the red jackets, all the volunteers,” Wegeman said. “This kind of thing doesn’t only happen in Rumford. It happens all across America. Right here and now, I just want to encourage those kids to keep that legacy going. Don’t let it die.”

If that attitude prospers as long as the Spirit of ’52, nobody needs to worry.