Have you lived in Finland in the last thirty years, Matti Nykänens face has been hard to avoid. In an unholy alliance with the gossip columns, he has managed to stay ahead of the game in the headlines for decades. Often for unhappy stories around the wet holidays, stabbings and concerts that degenerated.
But it started with glory and fame.
At the end of the 1980s, Nykänen for the finns what Ingemar Stenmark or Gunde Svan was for the swedes.
He drew attention to himself already in Oslo in 1982, where his 18-year-old took his first gold medal in the world CHAMPIONSHIPS. Ski jumping is a daredevil branch and Nykänen quickly became a heroic folk hero.
occurred a few years later during the winter OLYMPICS in Calgary, where the 25-year-old Nykänen won three gold by a wide margin and helped put Finland on the fourth place when it comes to the number of medals throughout the OLYMPICS (a total of seven compared with the Soviet union’s 29). In lillehammer, norway, he won against the czechoslovakian champion Pavel Pi with the entire seventeen points.
Matti Nykänen had an extremely focused when it came to training, but also a penchant for alcohol. Photo: Katsumi Kasahara/AP
the Secret is said to have been Nykänens tremendous focus when it came to training, his intense preparation, and a natural talent. It is said that Nykänen could jump both his feet up in the top bed when he did his national service in the army.
to be shy and it may have increased his popularity. Fåordighet is a virtue in Finland and Nykänen became famous for his twisted winged expression. ”It is a bit fifty-sixty how it will go”, is now an established formulation in Finland, when someone is a little unsure of how everything will land.
Already at the end of the 1980s, the coach worry about Nykänens drinking habits. Career three also due to the V-style became more and more dominant in the ski jumping.
Matti Nykänen singing at a strip club in Järvenpää, near Helsinki, 1998. Photo: Martti Kainulainen/AP
So Nykänen applied to other professions, such as singer and general celebrity. He also made a short career as a strippare. The first album was released in 1992, and there are only two finns who won a gold medal in the OLYMPICS and sold gold with an album (the other is schlagersångaren Tapio Rautavaara, who won the OLYMPICS in the javelin in 1948).
, got divorced, married again and all, the newspapers reported. 2006 made the director Aleksi Mäkelä, a film about Matti Nykänens life.
Yet on Friday, he held a concert at a restaurant in Helsinki. The place should have been crowded.
It is logical that it was the magazine, Seiska, which first reported on Nykänens death, which must have occurred the night of Monday. He was 55 years old.
– Matti Nykänen has always been a very contradictory figure who has done great evil, against himself and others. But he also gave a lot of joy and pride to Finland for their athletic performance. One of the greatest athletes, wrote the former Finnish prime minister Paavo Lipponen on Monday.
Boklöv about Matti Nykänen: ”He was dominant in nine years.”
ski-jumper Matti Nykänen death
