Martin MesÃk
Martin Mesik ( born October 17, 1979 in Banská Bystrica ) is a former Slovak ski jumper.
Career
After many of the Slovak ski jumpers who had already started for the team Czechoslovakia, ended her career in the 1990s, Mesik was for many years the only Slovak, who raced regularly in the Ski Jumping World Cup. He made it with his trainer Peter Slim, who served at the same time as national coach of Slovakia, a two-man team. It was mainly the almost complete lack of financial support from the Slovak Ski Association, a lack of sponsors and professional outfitters that hindered him. So he could not train at his home hill in Banská Bystrica several years after it was bought by a private man who refused to let him enter. In World Cup competitions him a physical therapist was often supported by the Association of International Ski Jumping Aid, the smaller ski jumping nations provided.
For the first time joined Mesik internationally with a team competition in 1995 in Planica in appearance, his first single result in a World Cup dates back to January 1996. In the 13 years in which he participated in the World Cup, but there were no outstanding results and his record has mainly placements of 30 to 50 and thus out of the points on. Best result is a 16th place in Willingen 2003. During Summer Grand Prix in 2005 Mesik could achieve the best performance of his career. He made it several times in the top twenty and was able to celebrate with an eleventh place in Hakuba, the best result of his career with a world-class jumping. This earned him a 23 at the end of a place in the overall standings.
Greatest sporting achievements of the Slovaks was the two-time participation in the Olympic Games. In Nagano 1998, he was a good 26 on the large hill, eight years later in Turin, he failed twice in qualifying. Furthermore, Martin Mesik participated in several ski flying and Nordic World Championships. Best result was ranked 20 on the large hill at the World Championships 1997 in Trondheim. When he reached the ski flying three times a place among the first 30
After the 2007/ 08 season ended Mesik his career, in which he was qualified for 90 World Cup competitions. He now works as a salesman at a BMW branch in Banská Bystrica.