Individual, Men

Japan’s Kenji Ogiwara was the heavy favorite, having won the 1993 World Championships, the 1992-93 seasonal World Cup, and leading the 1993-94 World Cup standings. He had lost only one competition all season leading into Lillehammer. Noway’s hopes rested on Fred Børre Lundberg, the 1991 World Champion who had been favored in Albertville, only to finish fourth. Ogiwara’s strength was jumping, but he finished only sixth on the hill, with Lundberg leading the ski jumping over Estonia’s Ago Markvardt, who was not considered a strong skier. Lundberg’s margin for the 15 km was 23 seconds over Markvardt but more importantly, 1:46 over Ogiwara. Lundberg skied conservatively, as everyone near him after the jumping was not considered strong enough to catch him in the cross-country. He placed eighth in the 15 km, but won the gold medal by 1:17.5. Ogiwara was only 11th in the skiing and dropped out of the medals, but the silver medal surprisingly went to his teammate, Takanori Kono, who had been fourth in the ski jumping and was able to move up to second, despite placing 13th in skiing. The bronze medalist, Norwegian Bjarte Engen Vik, would come back to win the gold medal in 1998 at Nagano. In fact the next four World Championships would be shared by Lundberg, Ogiwara, and Vik, with Lundberg winning in 1995, Ogiwara in 1997, and Vik in 1999 and 2001.