Biography sheds new light on ski-jumper Janne Ahonen’s eventful life

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When ski-jumper Janne Ahonen announced his first retirement from the sport just over a year ago he burst into tears while doing so.
      And Ahonen was not the only one with tears in his eyes. In his farewell briefing many sports editors also wiped their eyes, as apparently did many home viewers in front of their television sets.
     
Ahonen’s achievements were notable and his public image smooth. The truth, however, is slightly different. The Lahti-born ski-jumping legend is no choirboy.
      Ahonen is a noble person, a Finnish man worthy of his word, and a loving husband and father. But above all he is a ski-jumper. And these guys are an altogether different breed.
      Sports columnist Pekka Holopainen’s biographical work on Janne Ahonen titled Kuningaskotka (“King Eagle”), published by the publishing house Teos, provides a startling view on the sporting hero’s life.
     
”I did not want to produce a smoothed-out story, but to talk about my doings frankly and earnestly”, Ahonen said at the book’s launch event in Helsinki on Monday.
      “I am sure there are things in the book that come as a surprise to many, or even as a shock. The book is likely to delight as well as to upset”, Ahonen continued.
      The work provides a multifaceted growth story from the childhood years to the present. Holopainen has done his research carefully and he has managed to get people – starting with the main character – to speak openly.
     
From early childhood the ski-jumping hero has been meticulously precise, conscientious, and diligent. In ski-jumping he has never left anything to chance. Plenty of work was on offer and work is what Ahonen truly did through thousands of practice sessions.
      A tough profession that took a good deal of courage also called for pastime activities along the same lines. Alcohol was occasionally used in generous measures. Ahonen speaks candidly and remorsefully even about these things, and in the light of recent similar incidents involving younger ski-jumpers - who were not given an easy ride - some may wonder how Ahonen managed to get away with it.
      Ahonen grew up in the city of Lahti in Southern Finland in a family where good manners were held in high esteem. Even though he made it to the men’s national team already at the tender age of 14, there was still room in his life for a multitude of boyhood pranks and lots of foolishness.
      The sporting hero speaks warmly of those closest to him. It is endearing to read how during his active career Ahonen used to pick a four-leafed clover every summer from the yard of his grandmother's place. He then placed the lucky charm under the midsole of his ski boot before each season.
     
The ritual continued again this summer, after Ahonen announced in March that he would return to the sport after a year’s retirement.
      One chapter of the book tells how Ahonen received a EUR 300,000 cooperation offer from a foreign company after the top season of 2005. The Finnish Ski Association, however, did not cut the champion any slack.
      Instead of allowing Ahonen to carry a Red Bull energy drink ad on his jumping helmet, the Ski Association had already promised the slot to a domestic airline.
      After the season Ahonen was awarded a sauna ladle equipped with the Finnair logo. This has to be the world’s most expensive sauna ladle – and the most versatile as well. It works like a dream even in a punch bowl!
     
Ahonen is known for his outspokenness. He has criticised the Ski Association and its decision-makers, but usually only behind closed doors.
      Ahonen is far from being the stern-faced individual that he has often been branded as. Though he might not smile sweetly for the cameras, he is no wooden tailor's dummy. The man’s controlled sarcasm becomes evident through his numerous wisecracks mentioned in the book.
      When asked about the Ski Association’s possible reaction to some of the material presented in the volume, the 32-year-old Ahonen, who is planning to return to the sport this autumn, laughed in his typical manner: “Hopefully I can get away with it merely by being shaken by the hair a little bit”.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Janne Ahonen to return to ski-jumping (9.3.2009)
  Janne Ahonen announces retirement from ski-jumping (26.3.2008)

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