Bjørn Tore Wirkola (born 4 August 1943) is a Norwegian former

ski jumper Ski jumping is a winter sport in which competitors aim to achieve the farthest jump after sliding down on their skis from a specially designed curved ramp. Along with jump length, competitor's aerial style and other factors also affect the fin ...

Career

He became World Champion in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

in 1966, winning both the large and normal hill competitions. The 1966 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships were also held in conjunction with the

Holmenkollen ski festival The Holmenkollen Ski Festival ( or ) is a traditional annual Nordic skiing event in Holmenkollen, Oslo, Norway. The full official name of the event is Holmenkollen FIS World Cup Nordic. History It takes place in March and has been arranged every ...

, making Wirkola the Holmenkollen champion as well (a feat he would repeat the following year). Wirkola won the Four Hills Tournament from 1967 to 1969, and is still the only ski jumper who has won this tournament three consecutive years. He also competed at three Winter Olympics: in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

he finished eleventh in the Nordic combined, in

1968 Winter Olympics The 1968 Winter Olympics, officially known as the X Olympic Winter Games (), were a winter multi-sport event held from 6 to 18 February 1968 in Grenoble, France. Thirty-seven countries participated. The 1968 Winter Games marked the first time ...

Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...

, he achieved his best finish with a fourth place in the individual normal hill, 0.6 points behind the bronze medalist Baldur Preiml of

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, and the

1972 Winter Olympics The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially the and commonly known as Sapporo 1972 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside ...

, where he finished 37th in the wind-ravaged event in the Okurayama large hill. On 12 March 1966, on official training, he set his first world record at 145.5 metres (477 ft) and another one on the next day at 146 metres (479 ft), both on

Vikersundbakken Vikersundbakken or Vikersund Hill is a ski flying ski jumping hill, hill at Vikersund in Modum, Norway. It is one of the two largest purpose-built ski flying hills in the world. Nine list of the longest ski jumps, world records have been set there ...

Vikersund Vikersund is a town of 3,232 (in 2020) inhabitants in the municipality capital of Modum, in the county of Buskerud, Norway. Overview Vikersund is located 30 kilometers south of Hønefoss and 40 kilometers northwest of Drammen. The village is l ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. On 21 March 1969, he set his third world record at 156 metres (512 ft) and the next day his last world record at 160 metres (525 ft), both at the opening of Velikanka bratov Gorišek K153 in

Planica Planica () is an Alpine valley in northwestern Slovenia, extending south from the border village of Rateče, not far from another well-known ski resort, Kranjska Gora. Further south, the valley extends into the Tamar Valley, a popular hikin ...

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

. For his achievements as a ski jumper, Wirkola was awarded the Holmenkollen medal in 1968 (shared with

King Olav V Olav V (, ; born Prince Alexander of Denmark; 2 July 1903 – 17 January 1991) was King of Norway from 1957 until his death in 1991. Olav was born at Sandringham House in England, the only child of Prince Carl of Denmark and Princess Maud of Wa ...

Assar Rönnlund Bernt Assar Rönnlund (3 September 1935 – 5 January 2011) was a Swedish cross-country skier. Rönnlund's biggest success was at the 1962 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Zakopane where he won two gold medals (15 km and 4 × 10&nbs ...

, and Gjermund Eggen). The common parlance expression

jumping after Wirkola Jumping after Wirkola, an idiom of Norwegian origin (''hoppe etter Wirkola''), describes the prospect of and the difficulties associated with embarking on a task where one's immediate predecessor has accomplished an unusually good job. English equ ...

has come to refer to situations where one embarks on a task where one's predecessor has done a particularly good job – or where one is unlikely to succeed. Besides ski jumping Wirkola played

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

for

Rosenborg BK Rosenborg Ballklub, commonly referred to simply as Rosenborg () or RBK, is a Norwegian professional association football, football club from Trondheim that plays in Eliteserien (football), Eliteserien. The club has won a record 26 league titles ...

in the Norwegian Premier League from 1971 to 1974, and won both league and cup championships in 1971. The same year he was awarded

Egebergs Ærespris The Egebergs Ærespris ("Honorary Prize of Egeberg") is a prize awarded to Norway, Norwegian athletes who excel in more than one sport. The prize was created by Ferdinand Julian Egeberg, and consists of a bronze statuette modelled by sculptor Magnu ...

; recipients of that prize had to be international competitors in one sport and top-level national competitors in a different sport. Wirkola is of

Kven KVEN (1520 AM, "") is a commercial radio station that is licensed to Port Hueneme, California and serves the Ventura County area. The station is owned by Gold Coast Broadcasting and broadcasts a Spanish-language talk/sports format. By day ...

descent.

Ski jumping world records

Not recognized! Crash at world record distance.

References

External links

*
Holmenkollen medalists
– click Holmenkollmedaljen for downloadable pdf file
Holmenkollen winners since 1892
– click Vinnere for downloadable pdf file * ''Olympiske vinterleketer 1924–2006'', Åge Dalby, Jan Greve, Per Jorsett, Akilles forlag, 2006, , pp. 93–101. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wirkola, Bjoern 1943 births Living people Sportspeople from Alta, Norway Nordic combined skiers at the 1964 Winter Olympics Ski jumpers at the 1964 Winter Olympics Ski jumpers at the 1968 Winter Olympics Ski jumpers at the 1972 Winter Olympics Holmenkollen medalists Holmenkollen Ski Festival winners Norwegian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Norwegian male Nordic combined skiers Olympic ski jumpers for Norway Olympic Nordic combined skiers for Norway Rosenborg BK players FIS Nordic World Ski Championships medalists in ski jumping Eliteserien players Norwegian people of Kven descent 20th-century Norwegian sportsmen