Matti Hautamäki
Matti Antero Hautamäki (born 14 July 1981 in Oulu) is a former Finnish ski jumper. He is the middle of three brothers and the younger brother of former ski jumper Jussi Hautamäki. Like his brother, he started for the club Puijon Hiihtoseura in Kuopio.
Career
At the age of seven years Matti Hautamäki began, motivated by his older brother Jussi, with the ski jumping on a hill in the vicinity of his birth city of Oulu. At the age of 16, he moved in 1997 with his brother and his friend Lauri Hakola Kuopio, where he attended the sports school and the coach Pekka Niemelä at the Junior World Championships in Canmore, Canada in the year of the move already took team silver. The following year he took in St. Moritz, also at the Junior World Championships, bronze in singles and with the team.
On November 29, 1997, the Finn in Lillehammer, Norway, his first World Cup competition and already in his second on the following day he won with a 17th place his first World Cup points. His first podium finish he achieved on 27 November 1999 in Kuopio, as he finished third.
In subsequent years, the Finn has always been a permanent member of the World Cup team. His first winter he took victory on 2 December 2000 again in Kuopio, before he had to decide the Summer Grand Prix competition in the Japanese Hakuba for on August 26 of the same year.
To date (March 2009) he has to decide 16 World Cup competitions in individual for himself, including three in ski flying. There are also nine team victories, of which four in flies. Six of his individual victories he won in a record series in the 2004/2005 season, when he won ( the dress rehearsal for the Olympic competitions next year ), all four competitions of the Nordic Tournament and the first flight competition in Planica successively the second competition in the Italian Pragelato. Such a winning streak was before - in the same season - only Hautamäkis compatriot Janne Ahonen succeeded.
With this winning streak he won for the second time, the overall ranking of the Nordic Tournament after 2002. His best finish at the Four Hills Tournament, he reached in 2001/ 02, when he finished second.
In Olympic Games, the Finn was able to win four medals so far. At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, he won silver in the team on the large hill and bronze in the individual of the same four years later at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, he again won team silver and also in the individual on the normal hill he was Olympic silver medalist behind Lars Bystol.
At the World Championships he could even win gold in the team at the Nordic World Ski Championships 2005 in Oberstdorf, plus two silver medals come from the Nordic World Ski Championships 2003 in Val di Fiemme with the team and, in some of the large hill.
The Finn is considered an excellent ski jumpers. With its current longest jump of 235.5 meters he held until February 13, 2011, when Janne Happonen in Vikersund sailed to 240 meters, the Finnish record. In 2003, he improved the then world record in three steps at 231 meters and held this until 20 March 2005 when he first lost it, then regained and in the same competition back to the Norwegian Bjørn Einar Romøren lost, which could stand 239 meters. Ski Flying World Champion he was never. Previously, he won a bronze medal in the individual (2002 in Harrachov ) and three silver medals in the team (2004 in Planica, 2006 at Kulm and 2008 in Oberstdorf).
In recent years, the Finn has increasingly struggling with knee problems that were superior to him several times, according to end his career, so especially after the 2009/2010 season, which was one of the worst of his career. But because of the ideas of the new Finnish head coach Pekka Niemelä, he decided to continue his Skispringerkarriere. In the 2010/2011 season he was the best and most consistent fin.
On March 16, 2012, he announced to end his career after Teamskifliegen the next day in Slovenia Planica.
Only a few months after the end of his career in ski jumping Hautamäki began training for train drivers.
Trivia
About the Hautamäki brothers there is a song on the ' More ski jumper Songs ' CD by Christoph & Lollo.