Valery Vladimirovich Kobelev (russian: Валерий Владимирович Кобелев; born 4 March 1973) is a Russian ski jumper.

Nordic combined

Valery Kobelev began his professional career in Nordic combined and participated in the men's team and individual 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 ...

. Kobelev was placed 48th in the individual 15 km competition, and reached 12th place together with his Russian team in the team competition. He later changed his focus solely to ski jumping, and went on to participate in the 1998 Winter Olympics as a ski-jumper.

Ski jumping career

Kobelev began his professional ski jumping career in 1994, and made his World Cup debut in

Kuopio Kuopio (, ) is a Finnish city and municipality located in the region of Northern Savonia. It has a population of , which makes it the most populous municipality in Finland. Along with Joensuu, Kuopio is one of the major urban, economic, and cult ...

one year later. Since then he has started in the World Cup 46 times and in the

Olympics 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 ...

four times. His best World Cup performance was 2002 in

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...

where he received 5th place. Kobelev's best overall World cup season was the 2001-2002 season, when he received a 21st place. His last World Cup competition was in Willingen 2006, though he is still active and jumping in small competitions back in Russia. He is planning to end his active ski jumping career after the World Championships 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 ...

, 2009.

1999 crash

Kobelev is known, in part, for a serious crash while jumping at Planica in 1999. He lost his balance after leaving the take-off ramp, crashed head-first into the hill at 104.7 km/h and rolled at high speed down the rest of the hill unconscious. He came to a stop at the bottom of the hill and ambulance personnel rushed him 27 kilometres to a hospital in the small town of Jesenice, where he was put into an induced coma for several months. He made his return to the World Cup one year later. The crash was named the worst ski jumping crash ever by sports commentator

Arne Scheie Arne Scheie (born 7 January 1944) is a Norwegian sports commentator, with association football, football and ski jumping as his specialties. He started working in the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation in 1972, and started commenting the Four Hil ...

Olympic results

At the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in the ...

Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...

, Kobelev placed 54th in the normal hill competition and 35th in the large hill competition. Kobelev's Russian team reached the 9th place in the team competition. At the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internation ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

, he placed 27th in the normal hill, and 17th in large hill.

World Championships results

Koblev competed in his first World Championship in Ramsau 1999 where he placed 26th in the large hill event (K-120) and 36th in the normal hill event (K-90). Kobelev's second World Championship was in Val di Fiemme in 2003, where he placed 33rd in the normal hill event and 39th in the large hill event.

Best results

* 9th place,

, 1997, World Cup. * 6th place,

Villach Villach (; sl, Beljak; it, Villaco; fur, Vilac) is the seventh-largest city in Austria and the second-largest in the federal state of Carinthia. It is an important traffic junction for southern Austria and the whole Alpe-Adria region. , the po ...

, 2001, World Cup. * 9th place,

Predazzo Predazzo (, literally big meadow) is a village and ''comune'' in the province of Trento, northern Italy. Predazzo is located about 58 kilometres northeast of Trento in Val di Fiemme. It is one of the main centers of Val di Fiemme (the other is C ...

, 2001, World Cup. * 8th place,

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 Ob ...

, 2002, World Cup. * 7th place,

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 ...

, 2002, World Cup. * 5th place,

, 2002, World Cup.

Other

Kobelev's sponsor was the

Russian army The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска �В Sukhoputnyye voyska V, also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Gro ...

. He is married and speaks Russian and English. His bindings are from the label

Silvretta The Silvretta Alps are a mountain range of the Central Eastern Alps shared by Tirol, Vorarlberg (both in Austria) and Graubünden (Switzerland). The Austrian states of Tirol and Vorarlberg are connected by a pass road (Silvretta Hochalpenstra ...

and his boots from

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...

. During his most active period, his weight was 69 kg (152 pounds).

References

External links

Official FIS page of Valery Kobelev

* ttp://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/sport/spill/verdi/32365 Kobelev's horrific fall 1999
Kobelev after the accident
1999 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kobelev, Valery 1973 births Living people Russian male ski jumpers Ski jumpers at the 1998 Winter Olympics Ski jumpers at the 2002 Winter Olympics Olympic ski jumpers of Russia Russian male Nordic combined skiers Nordic combined skiers at the 1994 Winter Olympics Olympic Nordic combined skiers of Russia Sportspeople from Kaluga