Large Hill, Individual, Men

The overwhelming favourite coming in to the Olympics was the 23 year old German Sven Hannawald. Hannawald had done the unprecedented feat of winning all four events of the Four Hills Tournament earlier in the year and was a runaway leader of the World Cup. It was true that he had suffered a shocking defeat to the unheralded Swiss Simon Ammann on the smaller hill but he was expected to bounce back and claim victory in this event. Again Amman proved a thorn in the side of the German favourite and the two man finished dead level after round one with the Pole Adam Małysz in close contact in third. As on the normal hill event it all came down to the final jumps of Ammann and Hannawald to decide the championships. Amman’s leap of 133 m was the best of the competition and heaped the pressure on his German rival. Hannawald could not match the Swiss jumper but his leap of 131 m would have been enough to win the silver medal had he not slipped on landing and lost valuable style points. Małysz took a second medal of the games whilst the bronze went to Matti Hautamäki, who upheld Finland’s ski jumping tradition. Ammann, who had never won a World Cup event, thus became the third man to win the individual ski jumping double at an Olympic Winter Games.