Kazuyoshi Funaki
Kazuyoshi Funaki (Japanese船 木 和 喜, Kazuyoshi Funaki; * April 27, 1975 in Yoichi, Hokkaidō ) is a Japanese ski jumper. He counted especially in the 1990s the most successful sportsmen of its discipline, more recently, his career path was rather mixed. Funaki was known for his extreme " template " that is, for his reckless -looking variant of the V- style, in which the body lies flat on the skis.
Life and performance
Funaki began at the age of eleven years with the ski jumping. His birthplace Yoichi is also the home of Yukio Kasaya, who was with his victory on the normal hill at the Olympic Winter Games Sapporo in 1972 became a Japanese national hero. Kasaya is also the model of Funaki.
He had his first World Cup competition on 20 December 1992 in Sapporo. His first World Cup victory came on 10 December 1994 on the normal hill in Planica, Slovenia. A few weeks later, he led after the third competition of the Four Hills Tournament in the overall standings. In the second half of the fourth and final jumping in Bischofshofen, although he reached 131.5 meters, the Tagesbestweite but crashed on landing - the overall victory went to the Austrian Andreas Goldberger, Funaki was only the second rank.
Overall, Funaki reached in his career 15 World Cup victories, last on 5 February 2005 in Sapporo. His best result in the World Cup he achieved in the 1997/98 season with the second rank. This season he also won sovereign the Four Hills Tournament, which he was the first and so far the only Japanese. In 1998 he was also ski flying world champion in Oberstdorf.
The highlight of his career was the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. When playing at home Funaki won the large hill and the team gold, silver also on the normal hill behind the Finn Jani Soininen. In the individual competition on the large hill, he received five times the note 20 for his perfect jump in the second round - a rating that have so far received only five jumpers.
In the Nordic World Ski Championships 1999 in Ramsau he became world champion on the normal hill. In the same year he was awarded the Holmenkollen medal. With the Japanese team, he was named in 1997, 1999 and 2003 Vice World Champion.
Recently, Funaki is rather moderate success despite some successes opportunity. In the season 2004/ 05 he only reached the thirtieth rank of the overall World Cup standings.
After nearly four years of break in the World Cup Funaki jumped on January 31 of 2009 in a World Cup competition in his homeland and came in 19th place. He still participates in various competitions, but mainly in Japan, in part. On January 16, 2011 he succeeded with 16th place at the World Cup competition in Sapporo, another moderate success.
In the Asian Winter Games 2011 in Almaty, whose jump competitions were held at the newly built jumps of Gorney giant complex, Funaki won the large hill the silver medal. From the normal hill he finished sixth. In the team competition on the large hill Funaki with Yuta Watase, Yuhei Sasaki and Kazuya Yoshioka won the gold medal.
Funaki now lives in Slovenia and also trained no longer with the Japanese team. In contrast to all other Japanese ski jumpers he belongs to no factory team, but is a one-man team, a kind of self-employed entrepreneur.
The Austrian singer-songwriter duo Christoph Lollo and in 1999 published the song on the album Funaki ski jumper songs in which they " worship " him.