Ahonen, Janne

1990s

December 13, 1992 at the age of 15 made his debut in the World Cup. At his first start in the German Ruhpolding, Janne showed only the 56th result. In the same season, Ahonen became the absolute world champion among young men, having won all the disciplines of the world championship in Czech Harrachov .

The very next season 1993/94, Ahonen won his first stage victory in Engelberg, Switzerland. However, at the Olympics in Lillehammer, Ahonen was unable to compete for medals in personal appearances (37th on the normal springboard and 25th on the large), and the Finnish national team, of which he was a member, took only fifth place. But at the junior championship the Finn confirmed his strength by defending the title of absolute champion.

In the 1994/95 season, Ahonen proved to be an excellent cup fighter and took third place in the World Cup overall standings, losing to Austrian Andreas Goldberger and Italian Roberto Checon . In addition to the first cup success in March 1995, Ahonen won the first gold of the World Cup: in the Canadian Thunder Bay, the 17-year-old Janne won team jumps with Ari-Pekka Nikkola , Yani Soininen and Mika Laitinen . In personal competitions, Ahonen twice took ninth place.

In the 1995/96 season, Ahonen again became the third in the World Cup standings, demonstrating stability that was amazing for young people. However, the Finn could not win the World Cup quickly - at the turn of the century Austrian Andreas Goldberger, Slovenian Primoz Peterka , German Martin Schmitt , Pole Adam Malysh and others were too strong.

In 1996, Ahonen conquered the first medal at the flight championship of the world - in Austrian Bad Mittendorf he took second place, losing only to his eternal rival Andreas Goldberger.

The following season, 1996/97, Ahonen brought the World Cup (only eighth overall) to sacrifice preparations for the World Cup , which took place in Trondheim, Norway. And at the main start of the season, Akhonen had no equal on the normal springboard and team jumps (again with Nikkola, Soininen and Laitinen).

In the 1998/99 season, Janne won four ski jumps on his first Tour , without winning a single stage, but showing excellent stability, showing the eighth and three second results. Already in the new 1999, Janne was not able to win medals at the world championships in Ramsau , becoming the fourth in all 3 disciplines. At the end of the season, Janne became the second in the World Cup, losing only to the German Martin Schmitt.

2000s

Despite the unsuccessful performance in the 2001/02 World Cup (only 15th place and not a single victory) at the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Yann finally won the Olympic medal - silver in the team. At the same time, the struggle for gold was extremely dramatic - only 0.1 points for the Finns (Ahonen, Matti Hautamyaki , Veli-Matti Lindström , Risto Yussilainen ) lost to the Germans, despite the fact that they won over 25 points from the third Slovenes. Akhonen jumped the last of the Finns and flew 125.5 m (126.9 points), but Martin Schmitt lost the last leap to Akhonen (123.5 m and 121.3 points), but the Germans had enough reserves to win. The “weak link” among the Finns was young Lindstrom, who lost nearly 50 points to Ahonen in the sum of two attempts.

In the 2002/03 season, Janne became the fourth in the overall standings. In addition, the Finn won his second Four-Jump Tour, winning the stage in Innsbruck . And at the World Championships in Val di Fiemme, the Finnish team led by Ahonen ( Tami Kiuru , Arttu Lappi , Matti Hautamyaki) rehabilitated for second place at the Olympics, winning a gold medal.

In the 2003/04 season, Ahonen finally managed to win the World Cup, but won only 3 victories. In addition, at the flight championship of the world in Planica, the Finn won two silver medals, losing only to the Norwegian Roar Lölkelsö and the Norwegian team, speaking in team competitions.

The 2004/05 season was one of the most successful in Ahonen’s career. Janne began the season with four wins, then took one second place, after which he issued a record series of six consecutive wins, three of which were on the Four Jumps Tour. In addition to a clear victory on the Tour, Ahonen could repeat the achievement of Sven Hannavald , having won at all stages, but at the last stage in Bischofshofen Ahonen was beaten by the Austrian Martin Höllwart . In total, Ahonen scored 12 victories in the season. Not empty-handed Finn left the World Cup in Obestdorf . After an eight-year pause, he was subjugated to individual gold on a large springboard, and with the national team Ahonen won silver and bronze medals.

In July 2008, he announced the end of his sports career, but in March 2009, Ahonen announced that he would compete in the 2009/10 season ^[1] , outlining his main goals - the 2010 Vancouver Olympics , the “Four Ski Jumps Tour” and the World Cup. According to the results of the Four-Springboard Tour of 2009/10, Janne took second place, for the 10th time in his career, being in the top three winners. At the Olympics in Vancouver, Ahonen took the “usual” fourth place on the middle springboard, and was injured when jumping from a large springboard and was unable to participate in team jumps.

In total, 108 times he climbed the podium at the World Cup stages, having gained 36 victories. By the number of hits in the top three, it is leading in the history of the World Cup (Adam Malysh has 92 podiums in the Pole), in the number of victories Ahonen is in fourth place after Gregor Schlierenzauer (53), Matti Nyukyanen (46) and Adam Malysh (39). In addition to two victories in the overall standings, he also took second place twice and 4 times - third. By the number of hits in the top three in the overall standings of the World Cup, Ahonen leads, ahead of the Austrian Andreas Felder (6).

At the stages of the Four Springboard Tours, Ahonen scored 9 victories, 10 times the second and 9 times the third. In addition to 5 victories in the overall standings, he took the second place three times and twice the third. He won his first victory in the tour stage in the 1994/95 season, and the last in the 2007/08 season. 5 victories in the overall standings The Tour is a record in the history of the tournament, which has been held since 1952 . In the 1998/99 season, he managed to win the overall standings of the Tour without winning any of the four stages.

Despite outstanding personal successes at the World Championships and the World Cup, Ahonen was unable to win any personal awards at the Olympic Games - in 2002 in Salt Lake City and in 2006 in Turin, Janne became vice champion in the team championship at the big springboard. Three times, Ahonen took the 4th place - in competitions on the usual springboard in Nagano-1998 , in Salt Lake City-2002 and Vancouver-2010. Twice more in the team, Ahonen took fifth places on the big springboard in Nagano-1998 and in Lillehammer-1994 .

In 2005, in Planica, he jumped 240 meters, but fell when he landed. If not for the fall, it would be the farthest leap in the history of this sport.

The best athlete of 2005 in Finland.

2010s

He announced his retirement on March 13, 2011 after an unsuccessful performance at the World Cup in his native Lahti, where he took 34th place and could not get into the second attempt.

On January 11, 2013, Janne Ahonen decided to return to professional sports to perform at the Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014 , saying: “I will perform in a costume that I made myself. I already hopped in it, and it was a lot of fun. After a two-year break, my equipment did not disappear. I want to speak at the Olympics in Sochi and do not exclude the possibility that I will jump at the stages of the World Cup this season ” ^[2] . In Sochi, Ahonen performed unsuccessfully, not being in the top 20 either on the K-95 ski jump or on the K-125 ski jump . In the team championship, the Finns took only eighth place.

After the Sochi Games, Ahonen continued his career and took part in the World Cup 2014/15 and 2015/16 , as well as in the 2015 World Cup in Falun , where he made his debut at the 1993 World Cup at the age of 15. The veteran did not have much success, he usually took places in the third or fourth ten. In February 2015, he took third place at the Continental Cup in Lahti, losing only to young Norwegians and Slovenes who were not even born when Ahonen first became world champion in 1995.

A participant in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea , the standard bearer of the Olympic team in Finland at the opening ceremony of the games held on February 9 at the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium ^[3] .

Records by Janne Ahonen

• The greatest number of podiums at the stages of the World Cup (108)
• The greatest number of hits in the top three according to the results of the overall standings of the World Cup (8)
• Most points scored in World Cup stages
• The greatest number of victories at the World Cup stages in one season (12 in the 2004/05 season)
• The greatest number of consecutive victories at the World Cup stages (6, shares the record with Matti Hautamyaki , Thomas Morgenstern and Gregor Schlierenzauer )
• The greatest number of victories in the overall standings of the “Four Jumps Tour” (5)
• The greatest number of hits in the top three according to the results of the “Four Jumps Tour” (10)

Janne Ahonen at the Winter Olympics

Janne Ahonen at the World Ski Championships

Tia's wife and two sons - Miko (born 2001) and Milo (born 2008).

• List of Athletes with the Most Participation in the Olympics
• Kasai, Noriaki - Japanese ski jumper, participant of the 8th Winter Olympics

• Janne Ahonen - statistics on the FIS website
• Janne Ahonen - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com
• Janne Ahonen at finnish.ru