Matti Nykänen

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

Since the 1990s, however, his status as a celebrity has mainly been fueled not by his sporting 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.

[edit] Ski jumping career

For most of the 1980s Nykänen and Jens Weissflog of East Germany dominated the sport. 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 briefly until Piotr Fijas (Poland) flew 194 metres, again in Planica, in 1987. His other achievements include an impressive total of nine medals (five golds) at the World Championship level. He also won a 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). In Autumn 2007 Matti Nykänen began practicing ski jump again after more than 10 years off from the sport. On February 28, 2008 he won the International Masters Championship, which is regarded as the world title for veterans.

[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) (Nykänen changed his surname to Paanala during this marriage)
• 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] Biographies

• A movie about the life of Matti Nykänen was released in 2006, with Finnish actor Jasper Pääkkönen cast as Nykänen. The movie concentrated on Nykänen's exploits beyond the ski-jumping hills.
• The English version of his biography Greetings from Hell was published in January 2006 (EGOTH).

[edit] Quotes

Nykänen's (mostly unintentionally) hilarious answers to interviewers or talk-show hosts and other "aphorisms" are extreme forms of yogiisms. They have become extremely popular sayings in Finland. See Wikiquote.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Matti Nykänen

• FIS-Ski: Matti Nykaenen - statistics
• Matti Nykänen at Last.fm

[edit] Finnish

• Official website
• A fan's website

[edit] Norwegian

• Holmenkollen medalists - click Holmenkollmedaljen for downloadable pdf file
• Holmenkollen winners since 1892 - click Vinnere for downloadable pdf file

Awards
Preceded by Keke Rosberg	Finnish Sportsman of the Year 1985 and 1988	Succeeded by Päivi Alafrantti
Preceded by Britt Pettersen	Holmenkollen medal with Hermann Weinbuch 1987	Succeeded by Marja-Liisa Kirvesniemi