Harri Olli

Harri Olli
Personal information
Full name Harri Olli
Born 15 January 1985
Rovaniemi, Finland
Height 1.72 m (5 ft 7 12 in)
Professional information
Club Ounasvaaran Hiihtoseura
Skis Fischer
Personal best 225.5 m (740 ft)
Oberstdorf, 14 Feb 2009
World Cup
Seasons 2003–2004
20062011
2015–present
Wins 3 (+2 team)
Additional podiums 4 (+8 team)
Total podiums 7 (+10 team)
Updated on 30 Mar 2015.

Harri Olli (born 15 January 1985) is a Finnish ski jumper. His best achievement was a silver medal in the individual large hill at the 2007 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Sapporo. In the 2005–06 Continental Cup season, Olli won four individual events on normal hills.

Career

Before the 2008 Ski Flying World Championships in Oberstdorf, Olli had had a night out in a bar.[1] Nonetheless both his jumps were over 200 metres, which gave him the sixth place in the final results.

In August 2008 Olli was dismissed from the national team for a second time. He had been drunk during the Summer Grand Prix tour in central Europe and was late for the ride to the competition venue next morning.[2] In July the police caught Olli for drunk driving and heavy speeding near Lapinlahti.[1] Olli won one competition and placed third in another during the Summer tour. Olli took his first World Cup win in Oberstdorf on 14 February 2009 with both jumps over 200 metres, including a hill record of 225.5 m which still stands as of 2015. He has since won two more World Cup events, both in early 2009.

Olli again had alcohol-related problems before the opening of the 2009–10 season. He was having a dispute with his fiancée in a bar room and a drinking glass was used as a striking weapon.[3]

His 2009–10 season was characterized by sporadic bouts of good form. For much of the early season he maintained a position in the pre-qualified top 10, but as his performance curve dipped and he dropped outside the pre-qualified places, he sometimes did not qualify at all—something that seemed less to do with talent and more to do with attitude. Upon questioning by British Eurosport commentator David Goldstrom, the Finnish coach Janne Väätäinen stated that Olli's apparent disinterest stemmed more from "frustration" and shyness than a bad attitude to ski jumping.[4] The Finnish team nonetheless maintained faith in his ability and talent and during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Olli competed in all three events, although he was disqualified in the normal hill event due to a suit violation. In the large hill event Olli placed 18th, the highest ranking Finn, after a poor first effort and the disqualification of Janne Happonen, as well as Janne Ahonen's knee injury.[5] In the team event, Olli acted as anchorman in place of Ahonen, improving under the weight of responsibility and making two very good and consistent efforts. However, due to a sudden flurry of good form for the Norwegian team, Finland placed just outside the medals in a closely fought final round.[6]

In the 2009-2010 World Cup season, Olli finished 14th overall; 13th in the ski flying standings; 12th in the Four Hills Tournament; and 11th in the Nordic Tour.[7]

In the 2010 Summer Grand Prix, Olli finished 11th overall.[7]

On 28 November 2010, Olli was suspended by the FIS for one competition after 'flipping the bird' to the media camera after his poor qualification jump of 77 m, which left him in 57th place. Subsequently the Finnish Ski Association suspended Olli from the national team for an undisclosed period of time; this was now the third time in as many years that Olli had been suspended from the national team.[8] Finnish coach Pekka Niemelä stated in an interview after the incident that Olli had "personal problems", but there was speculation that Olli felt he was "thrown under the bus" by the event jury's decision to make him jump despite the bad wind conditions—conditions which the wind and gate compensation system did not seem able to adequately resolve.[9]

In an interview on the FIS Ski Jumping website, Olli stated that he had "no goals" for the 2010–11 season, other than to be an "all-round happy athlete" and to "jump well". When asked as to whether he was certain that the season would be successful, Olli replied "I'm not sure about that."[10] On 21 December 2013 in Lahti, he restarted his active career in the Continental Cup[11] and had sporadic appearances in the latter half of the 2014–15 World Cup season.

Olli is a student of Mathematics at the University of Rovaniemi, although his place of residence is Lahti.

World Cup

Standings

Season Overall SF 4H NT
2002–03 N/A
2003–04 70 N/A
2005–06 36 N/A 45 21
2006–07 28 N/A 21 29
2007–08 26 N/A
2008–09 4 2nd 7 2nd
2009–10 14 13 12 11
2010–11 82 N/A
2014–15 85 54 N/A

Wins

No. Season Date Place Hill Size
1 2008–09 14 Feb 2009 Germany Oberstdorf Heini-Klopfer-Skiflugschanze HS 213 (night) FH
2 13 Mar 2009 Norway Lillehammer Lysgårdsbakken HS 138 (night) LH
3 22 Mar 2009 Slovenia Planica Letalnica bratov Gorišek HS 215 FH

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Harri Olli.
  1. 1.0 1.1 "Ongelmahyppääjä Harri Olli saa syytteet törttöilyistään | Urheilu". Iltalehti.fi. 2008-08-27. Retrieved 2015-04-16.
  2. "Urheilu - Ilta-Sanomat". Iltasanomat.fi. Retrieved 2015-04-16.
  3. "Päivän lehti - Helsingin Sanomat" (in Finnish). Hs.fi. Retrieved 2015-04-16.
  4. British Europsort Commentary in the Large Hill Training Round (prior to qualification)- 19 February 2010, Vancouver Olympics, 6pm CET, Eurosport UK
  5. British Eurosport Commentary in the Large Hill Event- 20 February 2010, Vancouver Olympics, 7pm CET, Eurosport UK
  6. British Eurosport Commentary in the Large Hill Team Event- 22 February 2010, Vancouver Olympics, 7pm CET, Eurosport UK
  7. 7.0 7.1 "Olli, Harri". Fis-ski.com. Retrieved 2015-04-16.
  8. "Ski Jumping - FIS-SKI". Fisskijumping.com. 2015-03-22. Retrieved 2015-04-16.
  9. Video on YouTube
  10. "OLLI Harri - Biographie". Data.fis-ski.com. Retrieved 2015-04-16.

External links