Hannu Manninen
Hannu Manninen Kalevi ( born April 17, 1978 in Rovaniemi ) is a retired Finnish Nordic skier. Manninen won four times (2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007), the overall World Cup Nordic Combined. He has reached 48 World Cup victories in singles and four in the team and is now the sole record holder by a large margin. The cross-country skier Pirjo Muranen is his sister.
Career
His first successes Manninen already celebrated as junior athletes. So he already as a further 15 -year-old was at the Junior World Championships in 1994 in the Finnish team which won the silver medal in the Nordic combined in the Austrian Breitenwang. A year later he was able to win the individual title in this discipline in the Swedish Gällivare. After 1996 took second place in the Italian Asagio, he won the gold medal in his final Junior Championships 1998 in St. Moritz in singles and with the team.
For a long time clung to it on the blemish to have reached no single individual medal at the Nordic Ski World Championships or Olympic Winter Games. Particularly evident between these Leistungsdiskrepanz World Cup and major events at the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin was: After Manninen had won the last seven World Cup races, he reached in the Olympic individual disciplines as top favorite only the ninth and twelfth grade. At the 2007 World Championships in Sapporo for the first time he could win a world championship title in the sprint.
With the Finnish Season Manninen celebrated many successes, however: At the Olympic Games in 2002 in Salt Lake City, he was Relay Olympic champion. Torino 2006, the squadron reached the third place. In the 1999 World Cup in Ramsau Manninen won team gold at the 2001 World Championships in Lahti, the 2003 World Championships in Val di Fiemme Italian bronze medals at the 2007 World Cup and the gold medal.
Much caused a stir Manninen for an alleged lack of sportsmanship ( crowd control ) against Ronny Ackermann at a World Cup race. At the finish Ackermann poked his stick on a Manninen, but later apologized for this action at his opponent. To the surprise of the public Hannu Manninen presented the trophy at the choice of Ackermann of Germany's Sportsman of the Year 2005.
Manninen took occasional part as cross-country skiing in competitions. At the Olympics 2002 he was ranked eight in the 1.5 km sprint. In the Cross Country World Cup is also an eighth place his best result.
On 29 May 2008 he announced his resignation. At the Olympic Winter season 2009/2010 Manninen returned. In Kuusamo, he played 28 November 2009 his first World Cup race after his comeback and won second place. A day later, he then won his first World Cup victory after his break. In 2011, he finished his career again.
Hannu Manninen is married with Heli Manninen. They have two children together.