Mika Laitinen
Mika Antero Laitinen ( born March 3, 1973 in Kuopio ) is a former Finnish ski jumper. He started for the club of his birthplace, the Puijon Hiihtoseura.
Career
Laitinen started seven years ago with the ski jumping and made his debut in the Ski Jumping World Cup in March 1990 in Lahti; his first World Cup points he won again the following winter in Predazzo. Laitinen did in this very difficult time with the transition from the parallel jumping technique on the upcoming V- style. His characteristic style jump seemed quite wooden in the following years, which is why he was often considered by the judges with low attitude scores. However, the lack of elegance resembled Laitinen by its enormous bounce off - he was a " force Springer " and therefore especially on smaller jumps at an advantage.
He was appointed at the last moment in the squad for the Olympic Winter Games in Albertville in 1992. He won with the US-led Toni Nieminen team gold. In the individual competitions reached on the large hill the nineteenth, on the normal hill in fifth place. In the following two years he had to struggle with a form of weakness, and was rarely seen in the World Cup. For the 1994 Winter Olympics, he was not nominated. In the winter of 1994/95 he was back to form and has been at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Thunder Bay World Champion with the Finnish team and won the individual competition on the normal hill bronze; on the large hill he was Thirteenth.
Laitinens best season was the winter of 1995 /96 apply. He won five of the first nine World Cup competitions and led the year after his victory in Oberstdorf Rating Four Hills Tournament as well as the World Cup rankings by a wide margin on. However, during practice for the New Year's competition in Garmisch -Partenkirchen, he crashed heavily and broke seven ribs and collarbone. He therefore had to sit for many weeks, but finished second in the overall World Cup rankings ultimately still in sixth place. From this fall to Laitinen not recovered. Although they sometimes get in the following years notable successes, but too often he did not reach the second round. A victory it was no longer possible. Despite continued weakness in the form he was still in the following years a member of the Finnish team. With it, he again won silver at the World Championships 1997 in Trondheim. At the Olympic Winter Games 1998, the team reached only the fifth in the 1999 World Cup fourth place.
After the World Cup season 1999/2000 he ended his ski jumping career.