Juha Haukkala (born 28 June 1978) is a Finnish

freestyle skier Freestyle skiing is a skiing discipline comprising aerials, moguls, cross, half-pipe, slopestyle and big air as part of the Winter Olympics. It can consist of a skier performing aerial flips and spins and can include skiers sliding rails and ...

who specializes in the

skicross Ski cross is a skiing competition which incorporates terrain features traditionally found in freestyle skiing with courses which include big-air jumps and high-banked turns. In spite of the fact that it is a timed racing event, it is often cons ...

discipline. He made his World Cup debut in February 2003 in Les Contamines, and collected his first World Cup points in January 2004, with a 25th place in

Laax Laax ( rm, Lags) is a municipality in the Surselva Region in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. History Laax is first mentioned c. 1290–98 as ''Lags''. Geography Laax has an area, , of . Of this area, 35.8% is used for agricultural purp ...

and a 22nd place in Spindleruv Mlyn. The next year he won a gold medal at the

2005 Winter Universiade The 2005 Winter Universiade, the XXII Winter Universiade, took place in Innsbruck and Seefeld, Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the ...

and finished seventh at the 2005 World Championships. He placed among the top World Cup twenty for the first time in January 2006, with a fifteenth place in Les Contamines, and successively improved to fourteenth and eleventh before the season was over. He continued with decent placements in 2007, 2008 and 2009, with a fifth place from January 2008 in Kreischberg as his best result. He finished eleventh at the 2007 World Championships. Retrieved on 4 February 2009. He was born in

Seinäjoki Seinäjoki (; "Wall River"; la, Wegelia, formerly sv, Östermyra) is a city located in South Ostrobothnia, Finland; east of Vaasa, north of Tampere, west of Jyväskylä and southwest of Oulu. Seinäjoki originated around the Östermyra bru ...

, but resides in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

where he works as a

radiologist Radiology ( ) is the medical discipline that uses medical imaging to diagnose diseases and guide their treatment, within the bodies of humans and other animals. It began with radiography (which is why its name has a root referring to radiatio ...

. He represents the sports club Seinäjoen Hiihtoseura.

References

1978 births Living people Finnish male freestyle skiers Freestyle skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Olympic freestyle skiers of Finland Universiade medalists in freestyle skiing Universiade gold medalists for Finland Competitors at the 2005 Winter Universiade People from Seinäjoki Sportspeople from South Ostrobothnia {{Finland-freestyle-skiing-bio-stub