is a Japanese

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 ...

. As a ski jumper, he has won 35

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 name is ...

individual competitions, the World Cup overall title twice,

Four Hills Tournament The Four Hills Tournament () or the German-Austrian Ski Jumping Week () is a ski jumping event composed of four World Cup events and has taken place in Germany and Austria each year since 1953. With few exceptions, it has consisted of the ski ju ...

three times, and is an individual

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

gold medalist. During his victorious 2018–19 World Cup season, Kobayashi scored 13 individual wins and won all six possible titles in a single season: the World Cup overall title, the Ski Flying World Cup overall, the

, the

Raw Air Raw Air is a series of ski jumping competitions in ski jumping and ski flying in venues across Norway, taking place starting from the 2016–17 FIS Ski Jumping World Cup, 2016–17 season. Founded by Arne Åbråten, it is organized as part of th ...

tournament, the

Planica7 Planica7 is a four-day tournament in ski flying at Letalnica bratov Gorišek in Planica, Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to ...

tournament, and Willingen Five tournament. He is the third ski jumper in history to win the 'Grand Slam' of all four events in the 4Hills Tournament, the gold medal at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing on the normal hill and the silver on the

large hill 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 final ...

. With 252 metres (827 ft), the third longest jump in history, he is the current Japanese record holder. In a nonofficial event near

Akureyri Akureyri (, ) is a town in northern Iceland, the country's fifth most populous Municipalities of Iceland, municipality (under the official name of Akureyrarbær , 'town of Akureyri') and the largest outside the Capital Region (Iceland), Capital R ...

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

, in April 2024 he achieved a distance of 291 m after being around 10 seconds in the air and landing smoothly. It was an unofficial world record. However, it is not being counted as a ski flying world record by

FIS FIS or fis may refer to: Science and technology * '' Fis'', an ''E. Coli'' gene * Fis phenomenon, a phenomenon in linguistics * F♯ (musical note) * Flight information service, an air traffic control service * Frame Information Structure, a S ...

Personal life

He was born on 8 November 1996 in Hachimantai, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. He began skiing at the age of five but began ski jumping in the first grade inspired by his older brother and Japanese ski jumper Junshiro Kobayashi. He made his first ski jumping steps usually practiced at Tayama Ski Jumping Hill in Hachimantai and Hanawa Jumping Hill in

Kazuno, Akita is a cities of Japan, city located in Akita Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 28,329 in 12,570 households, and a population density of 40 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Kazuno is located in ...

. In 2015, he joined Japanese ski jumping team Tsuchiya Home Ski Team. Short after end of 2022/2023 season, he announced that he left the team after 8 years and he's planning to create his own club 'Team Roy’. He has two older siblings,

Junshirō Kobayashi is a Japanese ski jumper. He is the older brother of Yūka Kobayashi, Ryōyū Kobayashi and Tatsunao Kobayashi who are also ski jumpers. Career He represented Japan at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2015 in Falun, where he finished 13t ...

and Yūka Kobayashi, and a younger brother, Tatsunao Kobayashi; they all are ski jumpers. He attended Morioka Central High School, graduating in 2015. On his own YouTube channel he shares vlogs from competitions, private life, free time and training.

Career

At the

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and also known as PyeongChang 2018 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Ko ...

, Kobayashi competed in the men's normal hill, placing 7th, as well as the men's large hill, placing 10th. He has also competed in the team event with teammates

Taku Takeuchi is a Japanese ski jumper who has competed since 2006. His best individual result was in 2013 when he finished 2nd at Klingenthal. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lowe ...

Noriaki Kasai is a Japanese ski jumper. His career achievements include a gold medal at the 1992 Ski Flying World Championships, winning the 1999 Nordic Tournament, individual silver medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and two individual bronze medals at the ...

, and

Daiki Ito is a Japanese former ski jumper who competed at World Cup level between 2002 and 2022. Career He won two bronze medals in the team large hill event at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships (2007, 2009). He won four world cup individual compe ...

, finishing in 6th place. Kobayashi won his first Olympic gold medal at the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), were an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beijing, China, and surrounding areas wit ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

in the men's normal hill event. He became the third Japanese athlete to win a gold medal in the individual ski jumping events at the Olympics, after

Kazuyoshi Funaki (born 27 April 1975) is a Japanese former ski jumper. He ranked among the most successful sportsmen of its discipline, particularly in the 1990s. Funaki is known for his special variant of the V-style, in which the body lies flatter between the ...

in the individual large hill event in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

, and

Yukio Kasaya was a Japanese ski jumper. At the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo he became the first Japanese athlete to win a gold medal and the second Japanese (after Chiharu Igaya) to win any medal at the Winter Olympics. Previously he placed second at the 1970 ...

in the individual normal hill event in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

. He also succeeded in the other one tournament, in the men's large hill, placing 2nd.

Major tournament results

Winter Olympics

FIS Nordic World Ski Championships

FIS Ski Flying World Championships

World Cup

Standings

Individual wins

Individual starts (225)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kobayashi, Ryoyu 1996 births Living people Japanese male ski jumpers Olympic ski jumpers for Japan Ski jumpers at the 2018 Winter Olympics Ski jumpers at the 2022 Winter Olympics FIS Nordic World Ski Championships medalists in ski jumping Olympic medalists in ski jumping Olympic gold medalists for Japan Olympic silver medalists for Japan Medalists at the 2022 Winter Olympics 21st-century Japanese sportsmen