Espen Bredesen
Espen Bredesen ( born February 2, 1968 in Oslo ) is a former Norwegian ski jumper. He is one of four athletes ( next to him, Thomas Morgenstern, Matti Nykänen and Jens Weißflog ) which have won the 4 most important competitions in ski jumping sports (Olympics, World Championships, World Cup and Four Hills Tournament ).
Career
He started at the age of ten years with the ski jumping. His debut in the World Cup he gave on December 16, 1989 in Sapporo. After two moderately successful years he reached there just two years later with the eighth of the normal hill his first place in the top ten. At the Olympic Winter Games in 1992 reached the normal hill only the 57th, on the large hill even just the 59th rank and saw the ridicule of the Norwegian press exposed that compared him to Eddie the Eagle.
In the Nordic World Ski Championships 1993 in Falun, Sweden, he was then, however, first in the individual competition on the large hill world champion, two days later, surprisingly, also with the Norwegian team. About three weeks later in Lillehammer he also achieved his first World Cup victory. This brought him in his home country, the foundation - Morgenbladet a gold medal.
In the 1993/94 season he won the overall World Cup and the Four Hills Tournament. Overall, he reached eight World Cup victories in his career. The highlight of his career he reached at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer in front of his home crowd. On the normal hill he won ahead of his compatriot Lasse Ottesen the gold medal in the large hill silver. On 20 March 1994, he was behind the Czech Jaroslav Sakala also vice world champion in ski flying. With 209 and 210 meters, he also provided the meantime new ski flying World Records. For these achievements, he was honored in the same year with the Holmenkollen medal.
The following years were rather disappointing for Bredesen, among other things, what a slow-healing neck injury was to blame, which he had contracted in the summer of 1994 during training. In the 1994/95 season he reached the overall World Cup only the fifteenth, 1995/96 13 and 1996/97 16th place. His last victory came on February 5, 1995 in Falun.
Espen Bredesen is also a five-time Norwegian national champion on the normal hill (1991, 1992, 1993, 1997, 1998 ) and four -time champion on the large hill (1991, 1993, 1994, 1996).
His last competition, he played on 19 December 1999 at Zakopane. To the decision to end the ski jumping career, also contributed to the birth of his daughter Aurora in the same year.
In 1997 he married his wife Vibeke, with whom he lives in Kvål south of Trondheim today.