Bjørn Wirkola
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Men's ski jumping | |||
| World Championships | |||
| Gold | 1966 Oslo | Individual normal hill | |
| Gold | 1966 Oslo | Individual large hill | |
Bjørn Wirkola (born August 4, 1943) is a Norwegian ski jumper. He became World Champion in Oslo in 1966, winning both the large and small hill competitions. The 1966 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships were also held in conjunction with the Holmenkollen ski festival, making Wirkola the Holmenkollen champion as well (a feat he would repeat the following year). Wirkola won the Four Hills Tournament from 1967 to 1969, and is still the only ski jumper who has won this tournament three years in a row. He also competed at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, finishing fourth in the individual normal hill, 0.6 points behind the bronze medalist Baldur Preiml of Austria.
For his achievements as a ski jumper, Wirkola was awarded the Holmenkollen medal in 1968 (shared with King Olav V, Assar Rönnlund, and Gjermund Eggen).
In 1971, after retiring as a ski jumper, he started competitive football. He played for Rosenborg in the Norwegian Premier League from 1971–1974, and won both league and cup championships with Rosenborg in 1971. The same year he was awarded Egebergs Ærespris (where recipients need to be at top international level in one sport and at least at top national level in a different sport).
Naturally, in the minutes before any Wirkola jump, spectator attention and excitement levels were building up, with appropriate crescendo and forte fortissimo culmination during his flying through the air — inadvertently causing the next participant, regardless of fame, nationality or ability, to jump in the vacuum of tired spectator silence. The common parlance expression jumping after Wirkola has therefore come to refer to situations where one embarks on a task where one's predecessor has done a particularly good job.
[edit] External links
| World champions in ski jumping individual normal hill |
|---|
| 1962: Toralf Engan | 1966: Bjørn Wirkola | 1970: Gariy Napalkov | 1974: Hans-Georg Aschenbach | 1978: Matthias Buse | 1982: Armin Kogler | 1985: Jens Weissflog | 1987: Jiří Parma | 1989: Jens Weissflog | 1991: Heinz Kuttin | 1993: Masahiko Harada | 1995: Takanobu Okabe | 1997: Janne Ahonen | 1999: Kazuyoshi Funaki | 2001: Adam Małysz | 2003: Adam Małysz | 2005: Rok Benkovič |
| World champions in ski jumping individual large hill |
|---|
| 1925: Willen Dick | 1926: Jacob Tullin Thams | 1927: Tore Edman | 1929: Sigmund Ruud | 1930: Gunnar Andersen | 1931: Birger Ruud | 1933: Marcel Reymond | 1934: Kristian Johansson | 1935: Birger Ruud | 1937: Birger Ruud | 1938: Asbjørn Ruud | 1939: Josef Bradl | 1950: Hans Bjørnstad | 1954: Matti Pietikäinen | 1958: Juhani Kärkinen | 1962: Helmut Recknagel | 1966: Bjørn Wirkola | 1970: Gariy Napalkov | 1974: Hans-Georg Aschenbach | 1978: Tapio Räisänen | 1982 Matti Nykänen | 1985 Per Bergerud | 1987: Andreas Felder | 1989: Jari Puikkonen | 1991: Franci Petek | 1993: Espen Bredesen | 1995: Tommy Ingebrigtsen | 1997: Masahiko Harada | 1999: Martin Schmitt | 2001: Martin Schmitt | 2003: Adam Małysz | 2005: Janne Ahonen |
| Preceded by Toini Gustafsson & Ole Ellefsæter |
Holmenkollen medal with King Olav V, Assar Rönnlund, & Gjermund Eggen 1968 |
Succeeded by Odd Martinsen |
