Normal Hill, Individual, Men

Finland’s Janne Ahonen had been the outstanding jumper since the 2002 Olympics and he arrived in Torino as World Cup holder, joint Four Hills champion with the Czech Jakub Janda, and the favourite for the gold medal. Janda and the Pole Adam Małysz were considered as Ahonen’s rival. Contrary to expectations none of the three collected a medal in this event. Instead the gold medal went to somebody who mastered the art of peaking at the right time. Lars Bystøl had always been known to be talented but his career had been blighted by problems with alcohol and in 2004 he had lost his place on the Norwegian team for this reason. On January 4, 2006 he won his first World Cup event which was followed a week later by a gold medal at the World Ski Flying Championship. Despite this run of form, things started badly in Torino as he was disqualified in the qualifying round for wearing an illegal suit, though this proved unimportant as his world ranking guaranteed him a place in the final. Bystøl’s first jump left him in sixth place though the crowded leader board meant that this was only four points behind surprise leader Dmitry Vasilyev of Russia. Ahonen and Thomas Morgenstern of Austria lay just a half point behind the Russian in joint second. While Lars Bystøl’s second leap was, at 103.5 m, an improvement on the first round jump, those in front of him could make a similar improvement and the Norwegian held on to win by a single point and claim Norway’s first ski jumping gold since 1994. More success came for Norway as Roar Ljøkelsøy, in his fourth Olympics, won his first Olympic medal placing third behind Matti Hautamäki of Finland.