Noriaki Kasai
Noriaki Kasai (Japanese葛西 纪 明, Noriaki Kasai, born June 6, 1972 in Shimokawa, Hokkaidō ) is a Japanese ski jumper. He takes part in 1988 World Cup competition and is one of the oldest and most experienced athletes in his discipline. Kasai has been one of the 1991/92 season best in the world and is regarded as as one of the most consistent ski jumpers of the 1990s and 2000s. He jumps for the club Tsuchiya Home of the housing company Tsuchiya Holdings in Hokkaido.
Career
Kasai began at the age of eight years with the ski jumping. His debut in the World Cup he had in Sapporo on 17 December 1988. Making his first appearance outside of Japan he had at the Nordic World Ski Championships 1989 in Lahti.
On March 22, 1992, he celebrated to this day probably the biggest success of his career: he became ski flying in Harrachov Czech world champion. This victory was also seen as his first victory in the World Cup Ski Jumping. In total he won in his career so far 16 World Cup victories. His best results in the World Cup was the third places in the seasons 1992/93 and 1998 /99. Finally he reached the 24th place overall in the 2012/2013 season.
In the Nordic World Ski Championships 2003 in Val di Fiemme, he won on the upper and on the normal hill bronze respectively.
His personal best jump of 224 meters, it reached 2010 on the ski flying hill in Planica.
Kasai has for years also one of the most important Springer of the Japanese team. Ironically, the biggest success of the Japanese team, winning the gold medal at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games on home soil in Nagano, he had, however, Takanobu Okabe to defer them and went away empty-handed. Kasai is the first Japanese athlete who participated in seven Olympic winter games.
At the World Championships he won with the team 1999 in Ramsau, 2003 in Val di Fiemme and silver in Sapporo 2007 and 2009 in Liberec bronze.
At the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010, he reached in jumping at his sixth participation on the normal hill on the 17th Place.
After the earthquake and tsunami in his home country with the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011 committed itself Kasai. For children from the affected region He collected donations and invited families from Fukushima to a Summer Grand Prix Jumping in Hakuba.
The premiere of the mixed- team competition as part of the Summer Grand Prix on 14 August 2012 at the French Courchevel he won with the Japanese team.
On January 11, 2014 Kasai won at the age of 41 years jumping of the ski flying world cup at Kulm. It was his first victory in the Ski Jumping World Cup after almost ten years (February 28, 2004 in Salt Lake City ), which he surpassed the age record of his compatriot Takanobu Okabe, who won in 2009 in Kuopio at 38 years old to win. Kasai, making it by far the oldest winner of a World Cup ski jumping.
By winning silver and bronze at the 2014 Winter Olympics, it is the oldest medalist in ski jumping in the Olympics.