Matti Nykänen can still draw the crowds on the ski-jumping hill

Finest ski-jumper of all time finishes fifth in "Old Boys" World Championships

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At last! Matti Nykänen is in the news again for doing what he does best - or at least what he once did best: ski-jumping.
      Nykänen took part this week in the "Veterans’ World Championships", known more prosaically as the 19th International Masters Championships in Ski-Jumping, held in Taivalkoski.
      No, he didn’t win a medal, but this was nevertheless a major victory in many many ways.
     
There was no doubt who was the main attraction in Taivalkoski for the event.
      The 500-strong crowd applauded and cheered all competitors, but Nykänen was definitely the man in the spotlight.
      His popularity did not suffer in spite of the fact that he could finish no higher than fifth on his first attempt at the championships, where he was competing in the 40-44-year-olds category.
      When it was all over, Nykänen faced a press barrage that was quite unprecedented in this relatively leisurely and good-natured form of sport. Everyone wanted a piece of him, either for a statement or for an autograph and a photo with their hero, and he patiently satisfied everyone’s wishes.
     
For the record, Matti Nykänen jumped 46.5 metres and 46 metres on the HS-53 hill, and finished behind the winner Seppo Kinnunen, medallists Kari Hämäläinen and Pasi Huttunen, and 4th-placed Janne Heinonen.
      Kinnunen won his fifth title, with two jumps just over 50 metres.
     
The real story, however, was that Nykänen, 44, who has led a troubled life since he retired in 1992 from the sport he had completely dominated in the 1980s, was back on skis, looking determined and sober, and with a clear objective in sight.
      He admitted that his decision to start serious training (he has been working together with bronze-medallist Pasi Huttunen) had come a little late, and that the 150 jumps on snow he had made since January were not quite sufficient to get back his old abilities or to learn the newer V-style that would carry him further through the air.
      All the same, he delivered his two best jumps of the short season when it counted, he has shed nine kilos in weight, plans to shrug off a further six kilos, and looks to be enjoying what he is doing.
     
Perhaps the most striking thing for the outside observer, and testimony to the fact that Nykänen was not taking this all as a big joke, was that after the competition was done and dusted, he trudged off up the hill to do some extra practising.
      He has set his sights on winning a medal sometime at these "Old Boys" championships, perhaps already next year in Liberec in the Czech Republic.
      He also firmly steered clear of making any of his trademark outrageous comments while in Taivalkoski, and was studiously silent on the subject of Harri Olli's recent dismissal from the Finnish ski-jumping squad over "disciplinary matters".
     
Matti Nykänen is also continuing his performing career, and no doubt this latest appearance will have done that side of his life no harm.
      His manager Manu Syrjänen, who was also watching the games in Taivalkoski, pointed out that Nykänen had been stone-cold sober at gigs for over a year, although it took audiences a while to actually believe it.
     
If an athlete who has seen the highest of the heights in his active career - Nykänen is after all a four-time Olympic gold medallist and five-time World Champion - and plumbed the depths thereafter can now find some pleasure and purpose in rediscovering the sport he loves, then he should be wished every success.


Links:
  Matti Nykänen (Wikipedia)

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