Matti Nykänen

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Men's ski Jumping
Medal record
Matti Nykänen
Olympic Games
Gold	1984 Sarajevo	Individual large hill
Gold	1988 Calgary	Individual normal hill
Gold	1988 Calgary	Individual large hill
Gold	1988 Calgary	Team large hill
Silver	1984 Sarajevo	Individual normal hill
World Championships
Gold	1982 Oslo	Individual large hill
Gold	1984 Engelberg	Team large hill
Gold	1985 Seefeld	Team large hill
Gold	1987 Oberstdorf	Team large hill
Gold	1989 Lahti	Team large hill
Silver	1987 Oberstdorf	Individual normal hill
Bronze	1982 Oslo	Team large hill
Bronze	1985 Seefeld	Individual large hill
Bronze	1989 Lahti	Individual large hill
Men's ski flying
World Championships
Gold	1985 Planica	Individual
Silver	1990 Vikersund	Individual
Bronze	1983 Harrachov	Individual
Bronze	1986 Kulm	Individual
Bronze	1988 Oberstdorf	Individual

Matti Ensio Nykänen (pronunciation (help·info)) (born July 17, 1963 in Jyväskylä, Finland) is a Finnish former ski jumper, and was arguably the best in that sport, winning five Olympic medals (four Golds), nine World championships medals (five Golds) and 22 Finnish championships medals (13 Golds).

Since the 1990s, however, his status as a celebrity has mainly been fueled not by his sport achievements, but instead by his colourful personal relationships, his career as a singer, and various incidents often related to heavy use of alcohol and occasionally violent behaviour. Nykänen has been in the headlines of tabloid newspapers more often than any other person in Finland.

1 Ski jumping career
2 Later notoriety
3 Discography
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] Ski jumping career

Nykänen won gold and silver at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. His 17.5 point gold medal victory was the largest margin of victory in olympic ski jumping at that time. He was also the first ever to win gold medals on both hills at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. In 1986 he flew 191 metres in Planica, a world record which stood until 1987, when Piotr Fijas (Poland) flew 194 metres, again in Planica. His other achievements include incredible total of nine medals (five golds) at the World Championship level. He also won total of 46 World Cup competitions (more than any other ski jumper) and won the overall title four times (also a record, currently shared with Adam Malysz POL). He won the prestigious Four Hills Tournament twice. He competed in the Ski-flying World Championships five times and placed in the medals every time. Nykänen also won the ski jumping competition at the Holmenkollen ski festival twice (1982, 1987). In 1987, Nykänen was awarded the Holmenkollen medal (shared with Hermann Weinbuch).

[edit] Later notoriety

Nykänen's career inextricably combined sheer genius with temperamental outbursts and capers. After his retirement from sport, his athletic genius remained a heroic memory in the minds of his countrymen, but continuing and widely publicized follies made him something of a national disgrace. Stories of domestic violence as both perpetrator and victim, multiple marriages and divorces, a career as a musical performer (resulting in such compositions as "Hai Hai Hai, mä oon sun samurai", roughly translated as "Hai, Hai, Hai, I am your samurai", and "Vain mäkimies voi tietää sen", roughly "Only a ski jumper truly knows") and even as a stripper guaranteed more ridicule than respect.

Nykänen has been married several times:

Tiina Hassinen (1986-1988)
Pia Hynninen (1989-1991)
Sari Paanala (1996-1998)
Mervi Tapola (2001-2003)
Mervi Tapola (2004-present)

On August 24, 2004, Matti Nykänen was arrested on suspicion of attempted manslaughter after the stabbing of a family friend. He was found guilty of aggravated assault and sentenced to a 26-month jail term on October 27, 2004. As a first-timer, he was released from jail on September 21, 2005. While on probation, he was re-arrested four days later for abusing his current life companion, Mervi Tapola. Nykänen was convicted again for four months on March 16, 2006.

In 2006, he appeared on several Norwegian TV stations in a commercial for the mobile phone company djuice (owned by Telenor) featuring the slogan "Now you, too, can be in control" (the commercial shows Nykänen declining a party invitation). It has been speculated that the scene portrayed in the djuice commercial was staged and involved acting, and by implication that his declining the invitation was not based on an accurate portrayal of documented reality.

[edit] Discography

Yllätysten yö (1992)
Samurai (1993)
Ehkä otin, ehkä en (2006)

[edit] Trivia

A movie about the life of Matti Nykänen has been released in 2006, with Finnish actor Jasper Pääkkönen cast as Nykänen. The movie concentrates on Nykänen's exploits outside the ski-jumping hills.
The English version of his biography Greetings from Hell was published in January 2006 (EGOTH).
Nykänen's utterings which resemble yogiisms have become somewhat popular element in Finnish used by young people.
Today Nykänen is training hard, because he's planning to jump from Lahti's large hill during the winter 2006/2007.