Janne Ahonen announces retirement from ski-jumping

Finnish championships at the weekend will round off career

print this

Janne Ahonen's active career in ski-jumping is one competition short of completion.
      The 30-year-old multiple world champion made the announcement of his impending retirement from the sport in a Helsinki hotel on Wednesday.
      Ahonen, who has spent the better part of half of his life on the World Cup circuit and in major competitions, will wrap things up at the weekend by taking part in the Finnish championships on the big hill in Ruka. After that, he will turn to the challenges offered by civilian life.
     
Ahonen is one of the all-time greats of the sport, in spite of the fact that he has never won an individual Olympic medal.
      In every other department, his record is second-to-none: nineteen medals from major competitions, two overall World Cup victories, more than 100 World Cup podium appearances, and a record five wins at the annual Four Hills Tournament. The Four Hills is ranked by most in the discipline as the toughest test of all, with jumpers having to adapt to four very different hills in the space of a week. Ahonen took his fifth Four Hills title in January of this year.
     
He ends his career at the top of his profession, despite the fact that he is often ten years or more senior to many of his colleagues on the circuit, in a sport where nerveless youth and daring count for much.
      Ahonen finished 3rd in this year's FIS World Cup. It was the eighth time since he joined the tour in 1992 that he finished in the top three. He also took a team silver and an individual bronze medal at this year's Ski-flying World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany.
      Happy Landings!
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Janne Ahonen to continue ski jumping – at least for two weeks (17.3.2008)

Links:
  Janne Ahonen (Wikipedia)

Helsingin Sanomat