Large Hill, Individual, Men

Before the Olympics began the general opinion was that the title would go either to the Finnish World Champion Janne Ahonen or to Jakub Janda of the Czech Republic, as the two men had tied for the title of Four Hills champion earlier in 2006, but neither had made a great impact on the normal hill at Pragelato. The rich vein of form that Lars Bystøl had produced over the previous few weeks carried over from the smaller hill and he added a bronze to the gold he had won five days earlier but this event belonged to Austria. Andreas Kofler and Thomas Morgenstern produced the four longest jumps of the competition but Kofler’s poorer style marks on his second attempt assured that Morgenstern would be victorious. Coincidentally Morgenstern and Bystøl had family connections to the Winter Olympic through their uncles. Both Alois Morgenstern, a slalom skier, and Arne Bystøl, Nordic combined, competed in 1976 in Innsbruck.