Normal Hill, Individual, Men

At the 1992 Winter Olympics competition had been dominated by teenagers. Two years later neither of the stars of Albertville, Toni Nieminen and Martin Höllwarth, could qualify for Lillehammer as both men suffered a disintegration of their form. The men who had replaced the two men at the top of the ski jumping rankings included 1993 world champion Masahiko Harada of Japan, the young Austrian Andi Goldberger and the German pair of Thoma and Weißflog. The biggest story of the 1994 ski jumping competition did not concern any of those previously but instead centered about the host nation’s Espen Bredesen. Bredesen’s Olympic debut in 1992 was a humiliating failure as he finished last on the small hill and 57th out of 59th on the large hill and he was heavily criticized at home in Norway. After initially struggling to cope with the switch from the classical to the V-technique his results quickly improved in the 1992-93 season and he won both titles at the Norwegian Championships, the Holmenkollen event, the large hill title at the World Championship and the Pre-Olympic test event.

His performance in Lillehammer was as sensational as his exploits in Albertville had been disastrous. Bredesen’s first round leap may not have been as long as that of fellow Norwegian Lasse Ottesen but his style marks came close to perfection and he led at halfway. The pressure for a home victory had already lifted when Bredesen stood at the start gate for his second jump as Ottesen had already guaranteed a Norwegian gold medal but Ottesen’s hopes for the title were thwarted when Bredesen hung in the air then landed safely at the 104 metre mark. For Norwegian ski jumping the result of this event came as a redemption following the events of Albertville which saw a Norwegian team record a series of disastrous performances as they struggled to make changes to the technical side of the sport. The bronze medal was won by Dieter Thoma of Germany but his margin over the next four jumpers was just 2.5 points.