12/2001 – Adam Malysz

December 2001

PGF honors Adam Malysz the eight time World Cup ski jump title winner and champion and the second athlete in the circuit’s 22-year history to win five consecutive events. PGF has noted Mr. Malysz’s strong reliance on family and community and his endurance and success in the world of sport.

While jumping at Park City, Utah (the site of the 2002 Winter Olympic ski jump venue) for the January 2001 World Cup event Malysz was supported by a large, vocal Polish contingent — evidence of Malysz’s growing fame back home. “He’s bigger than Ricky Martin,” one Polish fan said of Malysz. “I’ve often felt I lost my childhood because of the sport,” Malysz said through an interpreter. “But right now I am very happy that I did that.”

Four Hills Fame: Malysz became a sensation at the 2000-01 Four Hills Tournament, considered the annual Super Bowl of ski jumping. The Four Hills Tournament is a series of four World Cup events held at four different sites in Germany and Austria. Malysz won the final two events of the tournament for his first victories since the 1996-97 season. He was the first Pole ever to win the Four Hills Tournament and first-ever jumper to break 1,000 points at the four-event competition. He also recorded the largest-ever margin of victory. His first World Cup win came at the Holmenkollen in Oslo in 1996. In that event, Malysz beat German legend Jens Weissflog in his final competition. But after three World Cup wins, Malysz went into a major slump that lasted three years. During that time, he married his wife, Izabela. They have a daughter, Karolina.

Biography:

Adam Malysz was born on 3 December 1977 in Wisla, Poland. Ski jumping runs in his family: his grandfather was also a ski jumper and his uncle, Jan Szturc became his first trainer. Malysz went in for ski jumping when he was 6 years old. He graduated from a vocational school where he apprenticed as a roofer.

1993 became an important year in his career: it was then that he won a bronze medal in Junior Championships in Nordic Combined in Poland. A year later a Czech Pawel Mikeska became his trainer. When Malysz was 18 years old he took part in his first serious competition: the Four Hills Tournament. So as to help him participate in it the inhabitants of his home town gathered the amount of money he needed. He made his first firm impact in the sport when he won the final World Cup of the 1996 season at Holemenkollen in Oslo on 17 March 1996. Then he won in Hakuba and Sapporo in 1997. But then his form began to decline sharply.

He got married in June 1997 and his daughter, Karolina, was born in October. According to a popular belief he spent more time with his family than on training, which had an adverse effect on his form in the 1998 and ’99 seasons. Finally, thanks to working with a new trainer, Apoloniusz Tajner and the help of university professors – a psychologist and a bio-mechanics expert, Malysz managed to enhance his performance. A new system of training helped him to improve his technique, especially at takeoff, and, as a result, to regain his excellent form. The Four Hills Tournament became a real shock for his colleagues but also for all those who doubted Malysz could again climb up the ski jumping ladder. Not only did he win the whole competition but also became the first ski jumper ever to gather over 1000 points in this tournament.

Information contained herein is a compilation of various news, internet and Olympic websites.

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