Jens Weißflog (, ; born 21 July 1964) is a German 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 ...

. He is one of the best and most successful ski jumpers in the history of the sport. Only Finns

Matti Nykänen Matti Ensio Nykänen (; 17 July 1963 – 4 February 2019) was a Finnish ski jumper who competed from 1981 to 1991. Widely considered to be the greatest male ski jumper of all time,

and

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 ...

, Poles

Adam Małysz Adam Henryk Małysz (; born 3 December 1977) is a Polish former ski jumper and rally driver. He competed in ski jumping from 1995 to 2011 and is one of the most successful athletes in the history of the sport. His many accomplishments include f ...

and

Kamil Stoch Kamil Wiktor Stoch (; born 25 May 1987) is a Polish Ski jumping, ski jumper. He is one of the most successful ski jumpers in the history of the sport, having won two FIS Ski Jumping World Cup, World Cup titles, three Four Hills Tournaments (two o ...

and Austrian

Gregor Schlierenzauer Gregor Schlierenzauer (; born 7 January 1990) is an Austrian former ski jumper who competed from 2006 to 2021. He is one of the most successful ski jumpers of all time, having won the Ski Jumping World Cup overall title, the Four Hills Tourname ...

have won more

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 ...

victories.

Career

Weißflog was born in Erlabrunn (now a part of

Breitenbrunn, Saxony Breitenbrunn is a community in the Ore Mountains in the district of Erzgebirgskreis in the Free State of Saxony in Germany. Geography Constituent communities The community consists of Breitenbrunn with Breitenhof, Carolathal, Halbemeile and ...

) in the Erzgebirge range. As a 19-year-old he won 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 ...

for East Germany in 1983/84. Weißflog was known as "Floh" (

flea Flea, the common name for the order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult fleas grow to about long, a ...

in German) due to his slight stature and his light body. That same winter he won the combined World Cup and later the normal hill event at the

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: ''XIV. Zimske olimpijske igre''; Cyrillic: XIV Зимске олимпијске игре; mk, XIV Зимски олимписки игр ...

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

. The following winter was dominated by Weißflog and the outstanding Finn

Matti Nykänen Matti Ensio Nykänen (; 17 July 1963 – 4 February 2019) was a Finnish ski jumper who competed from 1981 to 1991. Widely considered to be the greatest male ski jumper of all time,

. The most remarkable part of his career is that he competed at the top level for twelve years. Neither the regime change from East Germany to the unified Germany in late 1990, nor the change in ski jumping techniques from the parallel technique to the

V-style The sport of ski jumping has seen the use of numerous different techniques, or "styles", over the course of its more than two-hundred-year history. Depending on how the skis are positioned by an athlete, distances have increased by as much as withi ...

around 1993 stopped his success. In 1994 he won two gold medals in the individual large hill and team large hill events at the

1994 Winter Olympics The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games ( no, De 17. olympiske vinterleker; nn, Dei 17. olympiske vinterleikane) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, was an international winter multi-sport event held fro ...

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 ...

, ten years after his first Olympic victory. He finished his career in 1996 by becoming the first ski jumper to win the combined

four times. Only the Finn

has surpassed that record by winning the Four Hills Tournament five times. He had also earned five-second-place finishes in the competition over the course of his career. After this achievement he retired from professional sport. At the

FIS Nordic World Ski Championships The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships is a biennial nordic skiing event organized by the International Ski Federation (FIS). The World Championships was started in 1925 for men and opened for women's participation in 1954. World Championship e ...

, Weißflog won two golds in the individual normal hill (1985, 1989), three silvers in the individual large hill (1989) and team large hill (1984 and 1995), and four bronzes in the individual large hill (1991, 1993) and team large hill (1985 and 1991). He also won two medals at the

FIS Ski Flying World Championships The FIS Ski Flying World Championships is a ski flying event organised by the International Ski Federation and held every two years. The event takes place on hills much larger than ski jumping hills, with the K-point set between and . Unlike or ...

with a silver in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

and a bronze in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

. Weißflog also won the ski jumping competition at the

Holmenkollen ski festival The Holmenkollen Ski Festival ( no, Holmenkollen skifestival 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 ...

twice (1989, 1990). He was awarded the Holmenkollen medal in 1991 (shared with

Vegard Ulvang Vegard Ulvang (born 10 October 1963, in Kirkenes) is a Norwegian cross-country skier who won three Olympic gold medals, two silver, and one bronze. He has retired from international and Olympic competition. At the opening ceremony of the 1994 W ...

Trond Einar Elden Trond Einar Elden (born 21 February 1970) is a Norwegian former Nordic combined skier who represented Namdalseid I.L. in Trondheim. He competed at three Winter Olympics. At the 1989 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti, he became the yo ...

, and

Ernst Vettori Ernst Vettori (born 25 June 1964) is an Austrian former ski jumper. Career He won the Four Hills Tournament twice (1985/1986 and 1986/1987). At the 1992 Winter Olympics, he won gold from the normal hill, and silver in the team competition. Vet ...

). Today, Jens Weißflog owns a hotel in his home town of

Oberwiesenthal Oberwiesenthal (; officially Kurort Oberwiesenthal) is a town and a ski resort in the district of Erzgebirgskreis in Saxony in Germany. It is situated in the Ore Mountains, on the border with the Czech Republic, 19 km south of Annaberg-Buchh ...

and is the main ski jump commentator for German television station

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

World Cup

Standings

Wins

References

*
Holmenkollen medalists
– click Holmenkollmedaljen for downloadable pdf file
Holmenkollen winners since 1892
– click Vinnere for downloadable pdf file
Official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weissflog, Jens 1964 births Living people People from Erzgebirgskreis Sportspeople from Saxony German male ski jumpers Holmenkollen medalists Holmenkollen Ski Festival winners Olympic ski jumpers of East Germany Olympic ski jumpers of Germany Olympic gold medalists for East Germany Olympic gold medalists for Germany Ski jumpers at the 1984 Winter Olympics Ski jumpers at the 1988 Winter Olympics Ski jumpers at the 1992 Winter Olympics Ski jumpers at the 1994 Winter Olympics Olympic medalists in ski jumping FIS Nordic World Ski Championships medalists in ski jumping Medalists at the 1984 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1994 Winter Olympics Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the Silver Laurel Leaf