Kazuyoshi Funaki
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| Medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Men's ski jumping | |||
| Olympic Games | |||
| Gold | 1998 Nagano | Individual large hill | |
| Gold | 1998 Nagano | Team large hill | |
| Silver | 1998 Nagano | Individual normal hill | |
| World Championships | |||
| Gold | 1999 Ramsau | Individual normal hill | |
| Silver | 1997 Trondheim | Team large hill | |
| Silver | 1999 Ramsau | Team large hill | |
| Silver | 2003 Val di Fiemme | Team large hill | |
| Ski flying World Championships | |||
| Gold | 1998 Oberstdorf | Individual | |
Kazuyoshi Funaki (船木 和喜 Funaki Kazuyoshi, born April 27, 1975 in Yoichi, Hokkaido) is a Japanese ski jumper. He ranked among the most successful sportsmen of its discipline, particularly in the 1990s. Funaki is known for his special variant of the V-style technique, where the body lies flat.
Funaki began ski jumping at the age of eleven. His birthplace Yoichi is also the home of Yukio Kasaya, who was a Japanese national hero with his Normal Hill victory in the 1972 Winter Olympics at Sapporo. Kasaya was also Funaki's model.
Funaki had his first World Cup appearance on December 20, 1992 in Sapporo. His first World Cup victory was achieved on December 10, 1994 in the normal hill at Planica, Slovenia. Several weeks later, he was leading the Four Hills Tournament in total tour points after the third event. In the second part of the last event at Bischofshofen, he had the longest jump of 131.5 meters, but fell during the landing - and the overall tour victory went to Austrian Andreas Goldberger, and Funaki finished second.
Altogether Funaki won 14 World Cup career victories, his last on February 5, 2005 at Sapporo. He achieved his best results in the 1997/98 season with a second rank in the World Cup rankings. In that season he also won the Four Hills Tournament.
In 1997, Funaki won the ski jumping event at the Holmenkollen ski festival.
The high point of his career was in the 1998 Winter Olympic Games at Nagano. In front of his local crowd, Funaki won the individual gold medal on the individual large Hill, the team large hill gold medal, and the individual normal hill silver medal behind the Finn Jani Soininen.
At the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, he became the world champion of the individual normal hill in 1999 at Ramsau, Austria. And together with the Japanese team, he placed 2nd in the Team large hill in 1997, 1999 and 2003.
For his ski jumping successes, Funaki received the Holmenkollen medal in 1999.
In recent times, Funaki is only moderately successful despite some opportunities for successes. In the 2004/05 season, he finished 13th in the World Cup standing.
Funaki lives today in Slovenia and does not train any more with the Japanese team. Unlike all other Japanese ski jumpers, he does not belong to any team, and is an independent entrepreneur.
[edit] External links
- FIS Profile
- Holmenkollen medalists - click Holmenkollmedaljen for downloadable pdf file (Norwegian)
- Holmenkollen winners since 1892 - click Vinnere for downloadable pdf file (Norwegian)
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
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
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
1972: Walter Steiner * 1973: Hans-Georg Aschenbach * 1975: Karel Kodejška * 1977: Walter Steiner * 1979: Armin Kogler * 1981: Jari Puikkonen * 1983: Klaus Ostwald * 1985: Matti Nykänen * 1986: Andreas Felder * 1988: Ole Gunnar Fidjestøl * 1990: Dieter Thoma * 1992: Noriaki Kasai * 1994: Jaroslav Sakala * 1996: Andreas Goldberger * 1998: Kazuyoshi Funaki * 2000: Sven Hannawald * 2002: Sven Hannawald * 2004: Roar Ljøkelsøy * 2006: Roar Ljøkelsøy
| Preceded by Fred Børre Lundberg, Larissa Lazutina, Alexey Prokurorov, & Harri Kirvesniemi |
Holmenkollen medal 1999 |
Succeeded by Adam Małysz, Bente Skari, & Thomas Alsgaard |
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Categories: 1975 births | Ski jumpers at the 1998 Winter Olympics | Ski jumpers at the 2002 Winter Olympics | Holmenkollen medalists | Holmenkollen winners | Japanese ski jumpers | Living people | Olympic competitors for Japan | Winter Olympics medalists | People from Hokkaidō Prefecture | Japanese sportspeople stubs | Winter sports biography stubs
