Janne Ahonen answers HS readers' questions: Over-long jumps have no business in the sport

The recently retired ski-jumping multiple world champion has no regrets about that elusive Olympic medal

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Janne Ahonen, who wrapped up a glittering career in ski-jumping a few weeks ago at the ripe old age of 30 (making him almost twice the age of some of his young rivals), is not greatly interested in super-long jumps. He feels they are the wrong way for the sport to move forward, even if competition organisers think they bring in the crowds.
      For all that, Ahonen believes that in the future he will see people jumping as far as 280 metres, though it will demand a different kind of hill from the sort we have at present.
     
In his answers to questions posed by Helsingin Sanomat readers, Ahonen vehemently denies that he is ticked off at the fact that a career that brought almost everything else left him without an individual Olympic medal.
      And he says that even if he has quit jumping, his interest in sport will continue in drag racing, where he also anticipates further successes.
      And he doesn’t feel there is anything to be ashamed of in driving dragsters, as one reader archly suggests he might.
     
     
ON SKI-JUMPING
     
     
Why Didn’t You Carry On asks:
      Would you have achieved more in the sport if during a couple of those seasons you had had as good equipment under you as some of your rivals from Austria or Germany?
     
      “Improvements to the equipment, to the skis and the suits, are going on all the time, and there are always going to be seasons when some other manufacturer has a technical edge. This past season all my gear was absolutely top-class.”
     
Jussi S. asks:
      Apart from yourself, who would you say was the best ski-jumper in the world during your active career?
     
      “There have been a lot of very tough customers over the years, and some plenty tougher than me.”
     
Eero asks:
      What sort of atmosphere exists between ski-jumpers from different countries? Are you all complete strangers with one another, or do you all hang together?
     
      “Friends you love to hate”
     
Frei Karttunen asks:
      Who was your most difficult opponent during your career?
     
      “I was.”
     
Jaana asks:
      Have you ever experienced fear when you were jumping?
     
      “No, I’ve never been up so high that I would get frightened about it.”
     
Marianne asks:
      Could you imagine yourself becoming the head coach for the Finnish national ski-jump squad?
      “Not the head coach perhaps, but something else connected with the team maybe?”
     
     
ON OVERLONG JUMPS
     
     
Anne asks:
      How do you feel about the current trend among competition organisers to try to entertain the crowds with jumps that are borderline too long, at the risk of the safety of the competitors?
     
      “I think it’s definitely the wrong way to take the sport forward.”
     
Hyppeli asks:
      Distances jumped in ski-flying competitions have gone up a great deal since the 1980s. Do you believe the same trend will continue?
     
      “People will always jump further, yes, but a jump of 280 metres will require a whole new type of hill.”
     
     
ON GIVING UP THE SPORT
     
Koo asks:
      What was the first thing you did when you got home after that last competition?
     
      “I shut the door behind me.”
     
PM asks:
      How disappointed were you never to have won an individual Olympic medal?
     
      “Afterwards, with time, it didn’t leave me so disappointed. I’ve achieved a lot in other areas.”
     
      Ahonen also answers a similar question from K & M:
     
      “I didn’t win an individual Olympic medal, and I’m not going to win one. It’s alright with me."
     
Anu asks: You are arranging a farewell ski-jumping competition in Lahti in the summer [July 9th], to which you are inviting your colleagues and rivals. Who do you plan to invite?
     
      “The guys who have been the most important and the toughest competitors during my career. Come along and find out for yourself.”
     
Jenni asks:
      Would it be quite out of the question that you could come back and take part in the odd event here and there, for instance in Finland?
     
      “I’ve done jumping. Enough is enough.”
     
     
ON HIS PERSONALITY AND FAMILY
     
Kalle asks:
      What’s with the taciturn nature and the deadpan expressions? Is it concentration, or are you shy, or modest, worried about great expectations, or what is it?
     
      “Probably a bit of all of them, plus a big heap of humility.”
     
Raili Nuutinen asks:
      Ski-jumping is a daredevil sport, but that side of one declines as the years tot up. But in what other ways does age have a significance in ski-jumping? In both good and bad respects?
     
      “Fear can be one factor, and as you get older, it is naturally so that you don’t develop so much, but you start to tread water.”
     
Tuulikki Alsta asks:
      What were your homecomings like after competitions?
     
      “Regardless of the result, I don’t usually come home all down in the dumps. It’s not the family’s fault if I’ve underachieved, and it’s always nice to get home.”
     
Aila asks:
      Do you intend systematically to train your son to become a ski-jumper? And what about if your second child [due in May] is a girl? What would you train her as?
     
      “I’m not going to force my kids into any sort of mould; there is a lot more in life besides ski-jumping.”
     
     
ON THE FUTURE
     
Kankimasa asks:
      What do you plan to do with the rest of your life?
     
      “Just to live a normal life between work and the family."
     
PM asks:
      And what are your goals for the future in drag racing?
     
      “Sometime in the future, to be European Champion in the Top Fuel class."
     
Styrman asks:
      Don’t you feel at all ashamed about switching over to a sport that has such well-documented adverse effects on the environment?
     
      “In one summer I drive maybe a maximum of five races. This means a maximum of 30 starts all told. This means a maximum of around two and a half minutes of driving. And that means, no, I don’t feel any sense of shame!”
     
     
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
     
Polvikulma asks:
      Every day in the summer, the old Lahti ski-jumpers of yore gather at the Takkula Golf Club. When are you going to join?
     
      “If I get bitten by the golf bug at some stage, I guess I’ll join then.”
     
Jari Lehtinen asks:
      It is said you have a bit of a gift for drawing. Have you ever considered doing a strip cartoon on ski-jumping?
     
      “Drawing and sketching was a hobby of mine when I was young. These days I don’t do it much.”
     
Jussi S asks:
      Are you a bookworm or a couch potato watching TV?
     
      “Neither of them, really. I think I’m more of a perpetual motion machine, always on the move.”
     
Man From Lahti asks:
      What is your stand on Tibet and on Chinese human rights abuses?
     
      “Pass.”
     
Questioner asks:
      Do you plan to forge a great career as a speaker of aphorisms, like Matti Nykänen?
     
      “Maybe I will, maybe I won’t...”
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 17.4.2008
     
The article is one in an occasional series in which well-known sports personalities answer questions put to them by the newspaper’s online readers.


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

Links:
  Janne Ahonen (Wikipedia)
  Official Website
  Team Eagle Racing Motorsport (Ahonen is no slouch at this sport, either)

Helsingin Sanomat