Jens Weissflog

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Medal record
Men's ski jumping
Olympic Games
Gold 1984 Sarajevo Individual normal hill
Gold 1994 Lillehammer Individual large hill
Gold 1994 Lillehammer Team large hill
Silver 1984 Sarajevo Individual large hill
World Championships
Gold 1985 Seefeld Individual normal hill
Gold 1989 Lahti Individual normal hill
Silver 1984 Engelberg Team large hill
Silver 1989 Lahti Individual large hill
Silver 1995 Thunder Bay Team large hill
Bronze 1985 Seefeld Team large hill
Bronze 1991 Val di Fiemme Individual large hill
Bronze 1991 Val di Fiemme Team large hill
Bronze 1993 Falun Individual large hill

Jens Weissflog (born July 21, 1964) is the most successful German ski jumper of all time. Only the Finn Matti Nykänen and the Pole Adam Małysz have won more World Cup victories.

[edit] Career

Weissflog was born in Erlabrunn, in the Erzgebirge range.

As a 19 year-old he won the Four Hills Tournament for East Germany in 1983/84. Weissflog was known as "Floh" (flea in German) due to his slight stature and his light body. That same winter he won the Combined World Cup and later the normal hill event at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. The following winter was dominated by Weissflog and the outstanding Finn Matti Nykänen.

The most remarkable part of his career is that he competed at the top level for twelve years. Neither the regime change from East Germany to the unified Germany in late 1990, nor the change in ski jumping techniques from the parallel technique to the V-style around 1993 stopped his success. In 1994 he won two gold medals in the individual large hill and team large hill events at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, ten years after his first Olympic victory. He finished his career in 1996 by becoming the first ski jumper to win the combined Four Hills Tournament four times. Only the Finn Janne Ahonen has won the combined Four Hills Tournament four times too. He had also earned five second places finishes in the competition over the course of his career. After this achievement he retired from professional sport.

At the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, Weissflog won two golds in the individual normal hill (1985, 1989), three silvers in the individual large hill (1989) and team large hill {1984 and 1995), and four bronzes in the individual large hill (1991, 1993) and team large hill (1985 and 1991).

Weissflog also won the ski jumping competition at the Holmenkollen ski festival twice (1989, 1990). He was awarded the Holmenkollen medal in 1991 (shared with Vegard Ulvang, Trond Einar Elden, and Ernst Vettori).

Today, Jens Weissflog is a hotelier in his home town of Oberwiesenthal and is a sports commentator on Germany's ZDF television station.

[edit] External links

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Olympic champions in ski jumping individual normal hill

1964: Veikko Kankkonen * 1968: Jiří Raška * 1972: Yukio Kasaya * 1976: Hans-Georg Aschenbach * 1980: Toni Innauer * 1984: Jens Weissflog * 1988: Matti Nykänen * 1992: Ernst Vettori * 1994: Espen Bredesen * 1998: Jani Soininen * 2002: Simon Ammann * 2006: Lars Bystøl

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Olympic champions in ski jumping individual large hill

1924: Jacob Tullin Thams * 1928: Alf Andersen * 1932: Birger Ruud * 1936: Birger Ruud * 1948: Petter Hugsted * 1952: Arnfinn Bergmann * 1956: Antti Hyvärinen * 1960: Helmut Recknagel * 1964: Toralf Engan * 1968: Vladimir Belussov * 1972: Wojciech Fortuna * 1976: Karl Schnabl * 1980: Jouko Törmänen * 1984: Matti Nykänen * 1988: Matti Nykänen * 1992: Toni Nieminen * 1994: Jens Weissflog * 1998: Kazuyoshi Funaki * 2002: Simon Ammann * 2006: Thomas Morgenstern

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Olympic Champions in men's ski jumping team large hill

1988 Finland Ari-Pekka Nikkola, Matti Nykänen, Tuomo Ylipulli, & Jari Puikkonen
1992 Finland Ari-Pekka Nikkola, Mika Laitinen, Risto Laakkonen, & Toni Nieminen
1994 Germany Hansjörg Jäkle, Christof Duffner, Dieter Thoma, & Jens Weissflog
1998 Japan Takanobu Okabe, Hiroya Saito, Masahiko Harada, & Kazuyoshi Funaki
2002 Germany Sven Hannawald, Stephan Hocke, Michael Uhrmann, & Martin Schmitt
2006 Austria Andreas Widhölzl, Andreas Kofler, Martin Koch, & Thomas Morgenstern

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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 * 2007: Adam Małysz

Preceded by
Marja-Liisa Kirvesniemi		 Holmenkollen medal with Vegard Ulvang, Trond Einar Elden, & Ernst Vettori
1991		 Succeeded by
Yelena Välbe
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