Life after life
Ski jumping is a passion for a lot of people all over the world. For some of them this sport becomes a life. They learn, they train hard, they compete, they do all what they can to be the best. But what happens when a ski jumper decides to retire? How does the second life of a sportsman look like?
Many ski jumpers found their new job in TV as experts and commentators. For example Sven Hannawald, Andreas Goldberger, Martin Koch and Martin Schmitt work for Eurosport and other television channels. For a while also Jens Weissflog, Espen Bredesen and Jan Mazoch worked there. Now Weissflog has his own hotel, Bredesen works as a marketing and organization specialist in the team Trønderhopp and Mazoch is the organizer of Jiri Raska's Memorial, privately his own grandfather.
(source: red bull racing)
The most titled Polish ski-jumper, Adam Małysz, decided to end his ski-jumping career in 2011. But it wasn't the end of his sports career. Since a few years he competes in the cross-country racing, even if he is not the world's best driver this brings him a lot of joy. He took part in the Dakar Rally three times. Racing is also a huge passion of Sven Hannawald.
After ending with their sports passion a few jumpers dedicated their time to another hobby - music. And like that the finnish rock band called "The Kroisos" was created in 2004. Leader of the group and vocalist became Ville Kantee, who retired from jumping in 2002. Other former finnish jumpers joined him in this band- Jussi Hautamäki plays on bass, Olli Happonen on drums and Jarkko Saapunki on the guitar. In 2009 active ski-jumper and former nordic combined athlete Anssi Koivuranta joined them, playing on guitar. In this composition they released their first album called "Panda Eyes" in the same year and started their tour giving concerts in Finland, Germany and Poland. After ending his sports career also one of the best ski-jumpers in history Matti Nykänen connected his life with music. In 1991 he released his first album called "Yllätysten yö" (The night of surprises) and sold over 25 thousand of copies. He recorded also two more albums "Samurai" in 1993 and "Ehkä otin, ehkä en" (Maybe I took, maybe not) in 2006.
The Kroisos - Love Song
(Primoz Peterka, left, source: ladies skijumping Ljubljana; found on facebook)
Many ski-jumpers choose to connect their future to ski-jumping by sharing their knowledge as coaches. Sigurd Pettersen, Michael Uhrmann and Primoz Peterka train young adepts of this sport. Peterka was working with Slovenian's ladies team and passed also the referee course. And that proves the popular trend among ski-jumpers - many of them connect their sport careers with studying. Most of them choose the sports academies, but they also expand their knowledge in marketing, business and economics.
But there are some ski-jumpers, who cannot sever from this sport. Janne Ahonen ended his career in 2008, but already in 2009 he decided to come back, because he wanted to compete at the Olympics in Vancouver. He took part in World Cup competitions for a few seasons, but in 2011 for the next time he parted with this sport. In 2013 he decided to come back again and he competes in the World Cup to the present day.
- by Anna Sobol
