Jens Weißflog (; born 21 July 1964) is an East German and later 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 fin ...
. He is one of the best and most successful ski jumpers in the history of the sport. He is a two time olympic and nordic world ski champion; also overall world winner.
Career
Weißflog was born in Erlabrunn (now a part of
Breitenbrunn) in
Saxony
Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...
.
Olympics and Four Hills Tournament
As a 19-year-old he won the
Four Hills Tournament for East Germany in 1983/84. Weißflog was known as "Floh" (
flea
Flea, the common name for the order (biology), order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by hematophagy, ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult f ...
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 language, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, Serbian Cyrillic: ; ) and commonly known as Sarajevo '84 (Serbian Cy ...
in
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...
. The following winter was dominated by Weißflog and the outstanding Finn
Matti Nykänen.
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 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 (; ) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, were an international winter multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Hav ...
in
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 munici ...
, ten years after his first Olympic victory. Controversially, he committed one of the most unsporting acts in winter sports history, when he congratulated Japan's last team jumper with the victory, before the competition was over. The japanese failed miserably with his jump, while Weissflog did not, and thus Germany won the gold. In the next event, Weissflog was duly booed by approximately 40 000 spectators, who all regarded this former act as most unfair play, and a very dirty move. Weissflog responded by flipping the bird to the spectators, who did not warm further to him.
He finished his career in 1996 by becoming the first ski jumper to win the combined
Four Hills Tournament four times. Only the Finn
Janne Ahonen 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.
World Championships
At the
FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, 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 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 n ...
and a bronze in
1990
Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...
.
Weißflog also won the ski jumping competition at the
Holmenkollen ski festival
The Holmenkollen Ski Festival ( 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 and has been arranged every ...
twice (1989, 1990). He was awarded the
Holmenkollen medal in 1991 (shared with
Vegard Ulvang
Vegard Ulvang (born 10 October 1963) is a retired Norwegian cross-country skier who won three Olympic gold medals, two silver, and one bronze. At the opening ceremony of the 1994 Winter Olympic Games, he took the ceremonial Olympic Oath on p ...
,
Trond Einar Elden, and
Ernst Vettori).
Life after the career
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-Buchho ...
and is the main ski jump commentator for German television station
ZDF
ZDF (), short for (; ), is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany ( ...
.
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
German male ski jumpers
Holmenkollen medalists
Holmenkollen Ski Festival winners
Olympic ski jumpers for East Germany
East German male ski jumpers
Olympic ski jumpers for 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
Skiers from Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt