Jakub Janda (; born 27 April 1978) is a Czech politician and 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 fina ...

. In ski jumping he competed from 1996 to 2017, winning the 2005/06 World Cup and 2005/06 Four Hills Tournament (shared with

Janne Ahonen Janne Petteri Ahonen (; born 11 May 1977) is a Finnish former ski jumper and drag racer. He competed in ski jumping between 1992 and 2018, and is one of the sport's most successful athletes of all time, as well as one of the most successful from ...

), as well as silver and bronze medals at the 2005 World Championships. Janda is one of the most successful ski jumpers from the Czech Republic, and is the only Czech World Cup champion to date.

Ski jumping career

Janda made his

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

debut in 1996. He had his first major success in 2003, finishing in third place in

Liberec Liberec (; german: Reichenberg ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants and it is the fifth-largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well preser ...

. Janda improved his performance under new Slovenian coach

Vasja Bajc Vasja Bajc (born 19 January 1962) is a Slovenian ski jumping coach and former ski jumper who competed from 1979 to 1988, during which time he represented Yugoslavia. At World Cup level his best individual finishes were fifth in Planica on 21 Mar ...

in 2004. In the 2004–05 season he took several second and third places and one victory in World Cup events. He also won a silver and a bronze medal at the

2005 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2005 took place 16–27 February 2005 in Oberstdorf, Germany, for the second time after hosting it previously in 1987. The ski jumping team normal hill event returned after not being held in 2003. The dou ...

Oberstdorf Oberstdorf ( Low Alemannic: ''Oberschdorf'') is a municipality and skiing and hiking town in Germany, located in the Allgäu region of the Bavarian Alps. It is the southernmost settlement in Germany and one of its highest towns. At the&nb ...

. Janda started the 2005/06 season with World Cup wins in

Kuusamo Kuusamo ( sme, Guossán; smn, Kuáccám) is a town and municipality in Finland. It is located in the Northern Ostrobothnia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . T ...

Lillehammer Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the municip ...

Harrachov Harrachov (; german: Harrachsdorf) is a town in Jablonec nad Nisou District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic, close to the border with Poland. It has about 1,300 inhabitants. It is known for its ski resort. Administrative parts The town ...

and

Engelberg , neighboring_municipalities = Attinghausen (UR), Gadmen (BE), Innertkirchen (BE), Isenthal (UR), Wassen (UR), Wolfenschiessen (NW) , twintowns= Engelberg (lit.: ''mountain of angel(s)'') is a village resort and a municipality in the canton ...

, and entered the

Four Hills Tournament The Four Hills Tournament (german: link=no, Vierschanzentournee) or the German-Austrian Ski Jumping Week (german: link=no, Deutsch-Österreichische Skisprung-Woche) is a ski jumping event composed of four World Cup events and has taken place in ...

leading the World Cup standings. In the opening event in Oberstdorf, Janda finished in third place, with

in first and

Roar Ljøkelsøy Roar Ljøkelsøy (born 31 May 1976) is a Norwegian former ski jumper who competed from 1993 to 2010, and twice finished runner up in the World Cup. Career He won his first individual World Cup event on 25 January 2003 and was a very consistent ...

in second. After winning the second race of the Tournament in

Garmisch-Partenkirchen Garmisch-Partenkirchen (; Bavarian: ''Garmasch-Partakurch''), nicknamed Ga-Pa, is an Alpine ski town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the seat of government of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (abbreviated ''GAP''), in the O ...

, Janda moved to second place in the standings behind the reigning Tournament champion Ahonen. Norway's

Lars Bystøl Lars Kristian Bystøl (born 4 December 1978) is a Norwegian former ski jumper who competed from 2002 to 2008. His career highlights include an individual gold medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics, one individual World Cup victory, a gold medal in th ...

was the unexpected winner in

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...

while Janda finished ahead of Ahonen again to move into a two-point lead before the last competition. Like in all previous rounds, Janda advanced in last place into the competition to having skis that were too long during Oberstdorf qualifying and could not participate in the next three qualifying rounds as a result. The tournament climaxed with a head-to-head knockout duel between Janda and Ahonen. Janda won the first round by one point (tied to Ahonen on meters), then increased his lead to three points before the last jump. Ahonen beat Janda in the last jump by 141.5 meters to 139 meters and won the

Bischofshofen Bischofshofen () is a town in the district of St. Johann im Pongau in the Austrian federal state of Salzburg. It is an important traffic junction located both on the Salzburg-Tyrol Railway line and at the Tauern Autobahn, a major highway route cr ...

competition by two points. The overall standings thus had both jumpers tied for first place, the first ever joint victors in the history of the tournament. Norway's Ljøkelsøy finished third. Janda was the first Czech winner of the Tournament since

Jiří Raška Jiří Raška (; 4 February 1941 – 20 January 2012) was a Czechoslovakian ski jumper. He is regarded as the most famous Czech ski jumper of the 20th century. Early life He was born in Frenštát pod Radhoštěm in 1941. His father died of l ...

in 1971. Janda then experienced a drop of form, leading to poor results at the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, finishing 13th in the individual normal hill, 10th in the individual large hill and 9th in the team large hill. After the Olympics he returned to the podium in the World Cup event (2nd place in Lahti), but his form was less solid than at the beginning of the season. His biggest rival Janne Ahonen tried to take advantage of it, but also struggled and after disappointing Lahti results on the eve of the end of the season, he decided to withdraw from one race of the World Cup to concentrate on the last events in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

and on mammoth hill 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 hiking d ...

. Janda's lead grew to 175 points with 200 points to gain in the last round in Planica. Janda announced he did not want to participate in the

ski flying Ski flying is a winter sport discipline derived from ski jumping, in which much greater distances can be achieved. It is a form of competitive individual Nordic skiing where athletes descend at high speed along a specially designed takeoff ra ...

event (he finished only seventh in the Ski Flying World Championships just after the Four Hills Tournament), but had to compete in Planica to secure his overall title. Qualifying last to the final round of the first of two Planica races and finishing 29th after the second jump, he was helped by Ahonen, who did not reach a better result than 11th place. Janda did not enter the last race and finished the World Cup standings with 1151 points, still 127 ahead of Ahonen. He was the first Czech to win the ski jumping World Cup, and the first to win the Olympic discipline World Cup standings. Coach

ended his relationship with the Czech team after the season and was replaced by an Austrian, Richard Schallert. Janda has competed in three

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

, earning his best finish of seventh in the team large hill event at

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

while his best individual finish was 13th in the individual normal hill event at

four years earlier. On 2 October 2017 he made his last official career jump when he stuck at the qualification round of Grand Prix season final competition in

Klingenthal Klingenthal is a town in the Vogtland region, in Saxony, south-eastern Germany. It is situated directly on the border with the Czech Republic opposite the Czech town of Kraslice, 29 km southeast of Plauen, and 33 km northwest of Karlo ...

. He was elected to the

Czech parliament The Parliament of the Czech Republic ( cs, Parlament České republiky) or just Parliament ( cs, Parlament) is the legislative body of the Czech Republic, seated in Malá Strana, Prague. It consists of two chambers, both elected in direct elect ...

three weeks later.

Political career

Janda participated in the

2017 Czech legislative election Legislative elections were held in the Czech Republic on 20 and 21 October 2017. All 200 members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected and Andrej Babiš of ANO 2011, also the leader of the resultant government, became the Prime Minister. The ...

and was elected into the parliament as a candidate of the Civic Democratic Party. Upon his election, he retired from ski jumping.

World Cup

Standings

Wins

References

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Profile of Jakub Janda (in Czech)
;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:Janda, Jakub 1978 births Czech male ski jumpers Living people Olympic ski jumpers of the Czech Republic Ski jumpers at the 2002 Winter Olympics Ski jumpers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Ski jumpers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Ski jumpers at the 2014 Winter Olympics FIS Nordic World Ski Championships medalists in ski jumping People from Frýdek-Místek District Civic Democratic Party (Czech Republic) MPs Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (2017–2021) Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (2021–2025)