Nieminen Wins Gold on the Fly

Runner Paavo Nurmi was the original “Flying Finn,” but he had nothing on Toni Nieminen. This kid really flies.

Matching his gold-medal performance of Friday’s big-hill team jumping event, he soared 122 meters (400 feet 3 inches) for the first-round lead in the individual big-hill jump. Then, with almost everyone jumping shorter in the second round, bettered it with a closing leap of 123 (403 feet 6 inches).

Although he made it look easy, Nieminen, 16, of ski-jump crazy Lahti, needed his big effort on the final jump of the day. Austria’s Martin Hollwarth, 17, in second place, had just gotten off a jump of 116.5 meters, the longest of the round, and a poor jump by Nieminen would have cost him the gold medal.

Fortunately for him, however, the wind shifted just before Hollwarth’s jump, from tailwind to headwind. A headwind gives jumpers lift, whereas a tailwind drives them into the landing area. Nieminen made the most of his good luck. Tucked low on the in-run, he lifted himself off the big slide, then went soaring, riding his V’d skis as quietly as a hawk riding thermals over the desert.

The crowd erupted when he landed in a near-perfect telemark position, and Nieminen jumped up several times on his skis, raised his arms and punched the air as hundreds of his joyous countrymen cheered and waved their blue-crossed flags.

His two leaps gave him 239.5 points, compared to 227.3 for Hollwarth, whose first jump was 120.5 meters. Another Austrian, Heinz Kuttin, took the bronze, with leaps of 117.5 and 112 meters for 214.8 points.

Nieminen, the runaway favorite before the Games, finished with his two gold medals and a bronze, on the normal hill a week ago.

“I am the luckiest guy in the world,” Nieminen said. “It’s great.”

The youngster, in his first Olympics, has more medals than any other Finnish jumper except the Matti Nykanen, who won three golds in Calgary four years ago, after having won a gold and a silver at Sarajevo in 1984.

Nieminen resisted comparisons to Nykanen, whose career has disintegrated since Calgary. Nykanen failed to make this year’s Finnish team.

“I never said that I was at his level,” Nieminen said of Nykanen. “I don’t want to be compared to him. I still have to learn a lot, and he had a great long career.”

Asked about Nieminen’s sudden success--he dominated the World Cup season--Jim Holland, the leading American jumper, said: “He’s got a little bit of a different in-run position. His head and shoulders are really low. He takes a different line, comes in a little lower and then carries it out a little better.”

Holland, of Norwich, Vt., finished 12th with jumps of 105 and 101.5 meters.

“That’s not bad,” he said. “It’s a respectable performance. Up until (Saturday), I had really not been having fun on this hill. I just figured out (Saturday) what I was doing.

“The first jump, on the takeoff, I came back a wee bit on the end. I think had I stayed better on top of it right through the end, I would have gone better. The second jump, although not as far, felt like a good jump.

“It was really tough conditions out there. Notice nobody jumped very far (in the second round) until the last few guys. That really was a factor, the wind. Just the turkeys who need it get the (head)wind,” he said, laughing.

“When the wind starts (blowing) up the hill, jumpers, especially on the big hill, can jump 20 meters farther.”

Inside

HOCKEY: Unbeatens Team USA and Sweden play today in a game that will decide first place in Pool B. C6

SUPER-G: Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg earned his first Olympic medal, finishing second behind Norwegian Kjetil Andre Aamodt. C6

BOBSLED: Herschel Walker is disappointed after he and Brian Shimer finished seventh. Switzerland won gold. C7

SPEEDSKATING: Norway’s Johann Olav Koss recovered from pancreatitis to win the gold. American Eric Flaim had a case of food poisoning and tied for 24th. C7

NOTES: C7