Toni Nieminen
Toni Markus Nieminen ( born May 31, 1975 in Lahti ) is a former Finnish ski jumper. Nieminen was the first ski jumper who could land a jump over 200 meters successfully. Among his greatest achievements include two Olympic gold medals as well as the victory of the overall World Cup and Four Hills Tournament.
Career
In 1992, the only 16 -year-old Nieminen dominated one of the first V -style Springer the entire ski season to taste: He won the Four Hills Tournament, took two gold medals at the Olympic Winter Games in Albertville and finally reached also in the World Cup the first rank.
On this success in 1992 Nieminen could never build it. Weight problems due to further growth and the acquisition of the V- style by the world's elite are two of the reasons for the sporty crash.
Sports history, he wrote again surprising on March 17, 1994, when he was a jump to over 200 m to the ski flying hill in Planica, Slovenia's first ski jumper. Although Andreas Goldberger had already reached 202 meters on the same day, but he crashed on landing. So Nieminens applies Flight to 203 meters as the first " two hundreds".
In the winter of 2001/ 02 he managed in the World Cup twice the jump into the top ten, and so he was called into the squad Finland at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Ten years after his great triumph, he was able to win with a 16th place on the normal hill again a moderate success.
After the winter of 2003/ 04 he finished his career. Since then he has occasionally commented as a sports reporter at the side of Jani Uotila ski transfers on the Finnish broadcaster MTV3. Currently, he is also coach of the Finnish junior national team.