Samppa Lajunen
Samppa Kalevi Lajunen ( born April 23, 1979 in Turku ) is a retired Finnish Nordic skier.
In the later 1990s and in the early 2000s he was one of the most successful combiners in the world. His biggest success was the maximum possible triple success at the 2002 Winter Olympics, where he triumphed in both the Gundersen method as well as with the relay and the sprint. In addition, he has been with the squadron once World Champion and overall World Junior Champion twice. With 20 World Cup victories, he is on about the same level as Felix Gottwald, Ronny Ackermann and Bjarte Engen Vik. He also won twice in the World Cup and was third twice.
Career
The path to the world class (1995-1999)
Even with two years Lajunen denied his first cross-country race. A little later, at the age of five years, he ran almost 500 kilometers on skis, nine years old, he began jumping, so that it now controlled both sports in the Nordic combined. His first international competition dates back to December 1995 when he took part for the first time at the B World Cup. There he had already reached his first competition in Ramsau second behind the then 18 -year-old Ronny Ackermann the podium. A week later he won in Rovaniemi for the first time in this class. After these successes, the 16 -year-old made his debut in March 1996 in A World Cup, where he finished eleventh was right at the start before. From the 1996/97 season began, the Finnish Association of his young talent throughout the World Cup one. Lajunen continued to show his skills by ruling during that winter two World Cup races and hence the overall World Cup for themselves. With one exception, he placed himself in this season always in the top ten, he also won in the relay silver medal at the Nordic World Ski Championships 1997. His rising power compared to the previous season declared the Finn especially with the fact that he "one year has become older "and so " better jump and run much better. " He was also with the comparatively weak 17th place in singles at the World Cup not unhappy, it had not been his goal, " the best possible to do".
During the following winter 1997/98 Lajunen started directly with a victory - his first in the sprint with only a jump and a 7.5 -km cross-country skiing. However, after his performance fell slightly, up to the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, he succeeded no more World Cup podium. Instead, he won the team at the Junior World Championships, where she won the Gundersen competition the silver medal. So he traveled to Japan, where he won first with the team to Jari Mantila, Tapio Nurmela, Hannu Manninen and him with more than a minute behind the winning Norwegian silver. Also this medal brought the Finn in singles, where he had to defer to the double Bjarte Engen Vik Olympic champion. Even after the Olympics he could not achieve a top 3 result more in the World Cup, so he did not defend the overall World Cup victory by far and to eighth place with more than 800 points behind fell back to Vik. Like last year, the new 1998/99 season began successfully for Lajunen; within the first four races he won three times on the podium. To this end, he won just before the season - major events of the World Cup Chaux -Neuve. At the Junior World Cup in February 1999 in Saalfelden, he managed to win what his first major international single title meant. Two weeks later, at the 1999 World Ski Championships, won the Finn with the team, he also won the silver medal in the Gundersen competition. At the inaugural Sprint he placed fifth. After the World Cup he won another World Cup race, the fifth overall win of his career, yet he had a fifth more than 1000 Bjarte Engen Vik points behind, who triumphed in the World Cup for the second time in a row there.
Triple Olympic gold medal and End of career (1999-2004)
With a strong series of ten first and second places in a row - including five triumphs - Lajunen opened the 1999/00 season dominant, but also Vik came eight times in series on the podium. With one exception, when he was come in Sapporo after two bad jumps and an even worse run only 26, he finished all season - competitions among the best four and was so logical for the second time overall World Cup winner, almost 200 points ahead of Vik. With eight - season World Cup victories, the Finn paused to his account to a total of 13 triumphs on. In the Summer Grand Prix 2000 he proved by winning his favorite position for the coming winter 2000/ 01. However, this began differently than expected with little success for Lajunen, the first had to be satisfied only with a 12th and a 19th place in Kuopio. After these initial difficulties, he came up to the World Championships in February back in shape, but still remained without a World Cup win. In Lahti, during the Nordic World Ski Championships in 2001, the Finn took two silver medals in Gundersen and Sprint as well as bronze in the relay. As before the highlight of the season he remained even after the World Cup without another World Cup victory, so he again was only fifth in the World Cup, this time he was beaten the three years older Austrian Felix Gottwald.
Law successfully started the World Cup of Olympic winter 2001/ 02 for Lajunen. Nevertheless, it reached to the 2002 Winter Olympics only to one, his 14th World Cup victory. However, for Olympia, the Finn was on time in top shape; the Olympic competitions began with a distinct double victory by Lajunen and his fellow Jaakko Tallus in singles, after the latter Lajunen had taken off the jumps almost a minute. Also in the season beat the Finns all competitors, even though world champion Germany was defeated by just eight seconds. Even so Lajunen had set the record by Bjarte Engen Vik his opponent, which it than was hitherto only Nordic Combined succeeded in 1998 to win two victories in the same Olympics. Since the Sprint first time in 2002 was in the Olympic program, the Finn is now offered the chance for the third time to be Olympic champion, which was until then only the German Ulrich Wehling succeeded. After a jump Lajunen had 15 seconds lead over his main rival, the German Ronny Ackermann. On the way he sat further from Ackermann from which, although zoom ran to the winner thanks to a strong final lap to nine seconds, but Lajunens third Olympic victory could no longer threaten. Thus, this took over with now five medals also the lead in the list of Olympic gold medalist in Nordic combined before Wehling. The very good form of Olympic preserved also in the World Cup, where he won the next three games on the competitions (all before Ronny Ackermann ) and thus still heranchob close to the two overall leader Ackermann and Felix Gottwald. This, however, he no longer repressed, so he placed himself in the World Cup third place. In the second time evaluated Sprint World Cup the Finn was even second behind the German overall World Cup winner.
After a streaky Summer Grand Prix without pedestal Rank Lajunen started well in the World Cup 2002/ 03 - no podium result. Only in mid- December in Harrachov followed World Cup win 18 in the sprint of Ramsau he triumphed for the nineteenth time. The World Ski Championships 2003, he won two bronze medals in individual and team competition, he finished eighth in the sprint. Little successfully ended the season, thanks to his two victories before the World Cup, he placed himself in the World Cup but for the third time in fifth. Good for Lajunen began the 2003/04 season, in which he already binned on the podium to the beginning again a few times. In January he celebrated his 20th Nayoro World Cup success. Then he get more good results, he was in the World Cup again third in the first victory of his compatriot and coming World Cup dominators, Hannu Manninen. In Lahti, the Finn finished on 6 March 2004 his successful career with a third place. The example Lajunens, quite early to end the career - the triple Olympic champion was not even 25 years old -, followed in the next few years more athletes like the Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe and the Belgian tennis player Justine Henin- Hardenne.
His longtime trainer Tommi Nikunen was also known by the successes Lajunens and moved from the nordic combined at the ski jumpers, where he inherited the changing to Norway Mika Kojonkoski.
World Cup wins
The 20 individual World Cup victories Lajunens divided fairly equally between the two main disciplines; in the sprint he triumphed ten times, nine times in Gundersen, plus a victory comes in singles. He won three times only in Lahti, he won a total of five times in his native Finland. Only once he won both competitions a World Cup weekend, namely the beginning of March, 2002 in Lahti.