Toni Markus Nieminen (born 31 May 1975) is a Finnish 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 ...

who competed from 1991 to 2004, with a brief comeback in 2016. He is one of the most successful ski jumpers from Finland, having won both the

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 ...

overall title and 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 ...

in 1992, and three medals at the

1992 Winter Olympics ) , nations = 64 , athletes = 1,801 (1313 men, 488 women) , events = 57 in 6 sports (12 disciplines) , opening = 8 February 1992 , closing = 23 February 1992 , opened_by = President François Mitterrand , cauldron ...

. He remains the youngest ever Winter Olympic gold medalist, at 16 years and 261 days."Toni Nieminen - Youngest Winter Olympic Champion"

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

. Retrieved 19 June 2017. Additionally, he is known for being the first male ski jumper to land a jump surpassing , which he achieved in 1994 with a

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

of on 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 ...

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 ...

Career

Nieminen's biggest success came in his first

season in 1991/92. At the time, the transition from the parallel style 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 ...

was taking place and Nieminen was one of the first to master the new technique. Nieminen took his first World Cup victory in Thunder Bay, in December 1991. Then he went on to win the

with 3 victories and one 2nd place. At the

in Albertville, Nieminen won the large hill and the Team large hill, placing third in the normal hill. In the World Cup, Nieminen took a total of 8 victories securing also the overall title. Additionally, Nieminen won the World Junior Championship in both the Individual and the Team competitions. Nieminen was chosen as the

Finnish Sports Personality of the Year The Finnish Athlete of the Year, Sportspersonality of the Year is chosen annually since 1947 by the national sports journalism, sports journalists. In addition, the best female athlete was nominated each year until 2009. Winners Men Women ...

1992. In the following seasons, Nieminen showed only glimpses of his great talent. In 1994, he became the first ever ski jumper to break the 200 metre barrier at

, with a world record of 203 m. Out of his total of 9 individual World Cup victories, only one came after the 1991/92 season, in Kuopio 1995. In World Cup team competitions, Nieminen scored one victory, in Villach 2001. After retiring from ski jumping in 2004, Nieminen has worked as a sports commentator for Finnish

MTV3 MTV3 ( fi, MTV Kolme, sv, MTV Tre) is a Finnish commercial television station. It had the biggest audience share of all Finnish TV channels until Yle TV1 (from Yle) took the lead. The letters MTV stand for Mainos-TV (literally "Advertisement ...

. He has also competed as a driver in

harness racing Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait (a trot or a pace). They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, or spider, or chariot occupied by a driver. In Europe, and less frequently in Australi ...

. Nieminen made a comeback on 30 January 2016 finishing 17th in normal hill Finnish championship. Nieminen said that his target is to make a comeback to the World Cup.

World Cup

Standings

Wins

Ski jumping world record

First standing jump over 200 metres in history.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nieminen, Toni 1975 births Living people Sportspeople from Lahti Finnish male ski jumpers Ski jumpers at the 1992 Winter Olympics Ski jumpers at the 2002 Winter Olympics Holmenkollen Ski Festival winners Olympic ski jumpers of Finland Olympic gold medalists for Finland Olympic bronze medalists for Finland Olympic medalists in ski jumping Medalists at the 1992 Winter Olympics Finnish harness racers World record setters in ski flying 20th-century Finnish people 21st-century Finnish people