Matti Nykänen facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Matti Nykänen
Nykänen in January 2014
Country	Finland
Full name	Matti Ensio Nykänen
Born	(1963-07-17)17 July 1963 Jyväskylä, Finland
Died	4 February 2019(2019-02-04) (aged 55) Lappeenranta, Finland
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Personal best	191 m (627 ft) Planica, 15 March 1985
World Cup career
Seasons	1981–1991
Individual wins	46
Indiv. podiums	76
Indiv. starts	130
Overall titles	4 (1983, 1985, 1986, 1988)
Four Hills titles	2 (1983, 1988)
Medal record Men's ski jumping Olympic Games Gold 1984 Sarajevo Individual LH Gold 1988 Calgary Individual NH Gold 1988 Calgary Individual LH Gold 1988 Calgary Team LH Silver 1984 Sarajevo Individual NH Ski Jumping World Championships Gold 1982 Oslo Individual LH Gold 1984 Engelberg Team LH Gold 1985 Seefeld Team LH Gold 1987 Oberstdorf Team LH Gold 1989 Lahti Team LH Silver 1987 Oberstdorf Individual NH Bronze 1982 Oslo Team LH Bronze 1985 Seefeld Individual LH Bronze 1989 Lahti Individual LH Men's ski flying Ski Flying World Championships Gold 1985 Planica Individual Silver 1990 Vikersund Individual Bronze 1983 Harrachov Individual Bronze 1986 Bad Mitterndorf Individual Bronze 1988 Oberstdorf Individual Junior World Championships Gold 1981 Schonach Individual NH
Updated on 10 February 2016.

Matti Ensio Nykänen (born July 17, 1963 – died February 4, 2019) was a famous Finnish ski jumper. He competed from 1981 to 1991 and became one of the greatest ski jumpers ever. Matti won many important medals during his career.

He earned five Winter Olympic medals, including four gold medals. He also won nine World Championship medals, with five of them being gold. At the 1988 Winter Olympics, Matti won three gold medals. This made him one of the most successful athletes at those games.

Matti Nykänen is the only ski jumper in history to win all five major events in the sport. These include gold medals at the Winter Olympics, the Ski Jumping World Championships, and the FIS Ski Flying World Championships. He also won four World Cup overall titles and the Four Hills Tournament twice. His four World Cup titles are a record he shares with Adam Małysz. Matti is also the only male ski jumper to hold the ski flying world record five times.

Matti Nykänen's Ski Jumping Career

Nykänen on a postage stamp celebrating his 1988 Olympic wins

During the 1980s, Matti Nykänen and Jens Weißflog from East Germany were the top ski jumpers. Matti won a gold and a silver medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. His gold medal win was by a huge 17.5-point difference, which was the biggest win in Olympic ski jumping at that time.

He was also the first person to win gold medals on both the normal and large hills at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. In 1985, Matti set a world record by flying 191 meters in Planica. This record was later broken by Piotr Fijas in 1987.

Matti also won nine medals, including five golds, at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. He won 46 World Cup competitions in total. Only Gregor Schlierenzauer has won more. Matti also won the overall World Cup title four times, a record he shares with Adam Małysz. He won the famous Four Hills Tournament twice. Matti competed in the FIS Ski Flying World Championships five times and won a medal every time. He also won the ski jumping event at the Holmenkollen ski festival twice (in 1982 and 1985). In 1987, he received the Holmenkollen Medal.

In 2008, Matti Nykänen won the International Masters Championship for older ski jumpers.

Setting Five World Records

Matti Nykänen holds the record for setting the most ski jumping world distance records. He set five in total.

• On March 16, 1984, he set two records at 182 meters (597 ft) in Oberstdorf, West Germany.
• The very next day, March 17, 1984, he jumped 185 meters (607 ft) in Oberstdorf, setting another record.
• On March 15, 1985, he set two more records at 187 meters (614 ft) and 191 meters (627 ft). These jumps happened on the Velikanka bratov Gorišek hill in Planica, Yugoslavia.

Matti Nykänen's Olympic Medals

Matti Nykänen was a star at the Winter Olympics. Here are his results:

Event	Normal hill	Large hill	Team
1984 Sarajevo	Silver	Gold	N/A
1988 Calgary	Gold	Gold	Gold

World Cup Achievements

Matti Nykänen had an amazing career in the Ski Jumping World Cup. He won the overall title four times.

World Cup Standings

This table shows how Matti Nykänen finished in the World Cup each season:

Season	Overall	4H	SF
1980/81	26	—	N/A
1981/82	4	11	N/A
1982/83			N/A
1983/84			N/A
1984/85			N/A
1985/86		—	N/A
1986/87	6	65	N/A
1987/88			N/A
1988/89	9		N/A
1989/90	19	16	N/A
1990/91	—	—	—

World Cup Wins

Matti Nykänen won 46 World Cup competitions. Here is a list of his victories:

No.	Season	Date	Location	Hill	Size
1	1981/82	30 December 1981	Oberstdorf	Schattenbergschanze K110	LH
2		28 February 1982	Oslo	Holmenkollbakken K105	LH
3		12 March 1982	Tauplitz/Bad Mitterndorf	Kulm K165	FH
4	1982/83	18 December 1982	Cortina d’Ampezzo	Trampolino Italia K92	NH
5		4 January 1983	Innsbruck	Bergiselschanze K104	LH
6		15 January 1983	Lake Placid	MacKenzie Intervale K114	LH
7		16 January 1983	Lake Placid	MacKenzie Intervale K114	LH
8		23 January 1983	Thunder Bay	Big Thunder K120	LH
9		18 February 1983	Vikersund	Vikersundbakken K155	FH
10		19 February 1983	Vikersund	Vikersundbakken K155	FH
11		20 February 1983	Vikersund	Vikersundbakken K155	FH
12		27 February 1983	Falun	Lugnet K112	LH
13		26 March 1983	Planica	Srednja Bloudkova K90	NH
14	1983/84	18 February 1984	Sarajevo	Igman K112	LH
15		2 March 1984	Lahti	Salpausselkä K88	NH
16		4 March 1984	Lahti	Salpausselkä K113	LH
17		17 March 1984	Oberstdorf	Heini-Klopfer-Skiflugschanze K182	FH
18		18 March 1984	Oberstdorf	Heini-Klopfer-Skiflugschanze K182	FH
19	1984/85	4 January 1985	Innsbruck	Bergiselschanze K109	LH
20		9 February 1985	Sapporo	Miyanomori K90	NH
21		1 March 1985	Lahti	Salpausselkä K88	NH
22		10 March 1985	Oslo	Holmenkollbakken K105	LH
23		23 March 1985	Štrbské Pleso	MS 1970 B K88	NH
24		24 March 1985	Štrbské Pleso	MS 1970 A K114	LH
25	1985/86	11 January 1986	Harrachov	Čerťák K120	LH
26		17 January 1986	Klingenthal	Aschbergschanze K102	LH
27		25 January 1986	Sapporo	Miyanomori K90	NH
28		26 January 1986	Sapporo	Ōkurayama K112	LH
29		1 March 1986	Lahti	Salpausselkä K90	NH
30		2 March 1986	Lahti	Salpausselkä K113	LH
31		22 March 1986	Planica	Srednja Bloudkova K90	NH
32	1986/87	7 December 1986	Thunder Bay	Big Thunder K120	LH
33		1 March 1987	Lahti	Salpausselkä K88	NH
34		8 March 1987	Falun	Lugnet K112	LH
35	1987/88	5 December 1987	Thunder Bay	Big Thunder K89	NH
36		6 December 1987	Thunder Bay	Big Thunder K120	LH
37		19 December 1987	Sapporo	Miyanomori K90	NH
38		20 December 1987	Sapporo	Ōkurayama K115	LH
39		1 January 1988	Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Große Olympiaschanze K107	LH
40		4 January 1988	Innsbruck	Bergiselschanze K109	LH
41		6 January 1988	Bischofshofen	Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze K111	LH
42		20 January 1988	St. Moritz	Olympiaschanze K94	NH
43		4 March 1988	Lahti	Salpausselkä K90	NH
44		6 March 1988	Lahti	Salpausselkä K114	LH
45	1988/89	17 December 1988	Sapporo	Miyanomori K90	NH
46		1 January 1989	Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Große Olympiaschanze K107	LH

Life After Ski Jumping

After his amazing ski jumping career, Matti Nykänen tried something new: singing!

Matti Nykänen as an Entertainer

Matti Nykänen performing at a music event in 2013

When Matti's ski jumping days were ending, some business people suggested he become a singer. His first album, Yllätysten yö (meaning Night of Surprises), came out in 1992. It sold over 25,000 copies! This made Matti the second Olympic gold medalist in Finland to earn a golden record.

His next album, Samurai (1993), was not as popular. But in 2002, Matti made a comeback as a singer. He released a song called "Ehkä otin, ehkä en" ("Maybe I took [it], maybe I didn't"). He even had a cider drink named after this slogan! In 2006, he released his third album, also called Ehkä otin, ehkä en.

Matti often worked with a professional musician named Jussi Niemi. Matti toured Finland, performing a few times a week with a group called Samurai. Many of his songs were named after famous sayings he used, like Elämä on laiffii ("Life is life").

In November 2009, Matti Nykänen started his own cooking web series. It was called Mattihan se sopan keitti, which means "After all, it's a soup kitchen."

Matti Nykänen's Passing

Matti Nykänen passed away at his home in Lappeenranta, Finland, on February 4, 2019. He was 55 years old. He had been feeling unwell that night. Matti had been diagnosed with diabetes a few months before.

News of his death was shared widely in Finland and around the world. Many other ski jumpers from his time shared their sadness and respect for him. He is remembered by his wife and three children. Later, in May 2019, Matti's sisters shared that he passed away from pancreatitis and pneumonia.

See also

In Spanish: Matti Nykänen para niños

• Matti Pulli

Images for kids

• 

  Matti Nykänen's Olympic, World Championship and Finnish Medals at the Sports Museum. The collection is owned by the Finnish Sports Museum Foundation

• 

  Matti Nykänen in Finnish military service 1984

• 

  Nykänen performing in 2010