He fell into alcoholism when he was 14 years old. The jumper of all time became a stripper

On the fourth anniversary of Matti Nykaenen’s death, we are refreshing the text we published two years ago.

He took part in 143 World Cup competitions. He won 46, and finished 76 on the podium. So he won every third start, and he jumped to the top three every 1.88 competitions! These are unusual numbers, no one has ever had similar ones. Jumping is not math, but for those who haven’t watched the Finn’s performances, simple math can tell a lot.

In the 42-year history of the World Cup, only Gregor Schlierenzauer has won more competitions than Nykaenen. The Austrian has 53 victories. But in 275 starts. This means that he wins, on average, every fifth competition. Let’s look further. Historical number three is Adam Małysz. They jumped his 39 victories in 349 starts. So he won every ninth competition. On the other hand, Kamil Stoch won his 39 victories in 377 competitions, which means that on average he won every 9.7 competitions.

Various statistics can be juggled for a long time. But it is enough to mention one more, most important one: in the history of ski jumping there was only one ski jumper who:

• became an Olympic champion
• won the world championship
• won the flying world championship
• won the Four Hills Tournament
• was the best overall in the World Cup

Yes, it’s Nykaenen. He did everything in seven years. Almost everything multiple times. Started very early and ended much too soon. He had already burned out at the age of 26. And so he lasted a long time, since he began to fall into alcoholism as a 14-year-old.

“The problem with alcohol? is that sometimes there is no alcohol”*

“When I was 14, I got drunk on three bottles of beer. But I don’t have a problem with alcohol. I’ve seen people suffering from alcoholism. They drink so much that they can’t walk. And I can run after four beers,” said Nykaenen, 40, in his autobiography.

The small boy from Jyväskylä began to show great talent at the age of seven. And when he was a teenager, it was at the university in his city that scientists helped people in sports revolutionize jumping. Specialists in biomechanics, aerodynamics and physiology, together with trainers, developed workouts that took Nykaenen and his colleagues to the top. The coaches also had to make sure that Matti, who had the greatest potential, fell from the top as little as possible. And when he fell many times, they had to pick him up.

As many as 31 won competitions in the World Cup and three won seasons, plus Olympic gold and silver, gold and bronze of the World Championships won individually, two championship titles in the team, gold and two bronzes of the World Championships in ski flying, won the Four Hills Tournament – in 1986 Already The 23-year-old Nykaenen had such an impressive collection of triumphs. He already won everything then. And that’s when he started collecting judgments. First for shoplifting beer and cigarettes. Then it was just a fine. In the following years, Matti’s alcohol and drug streaks ended much worse.

“I remember a lot of suspensions the Finns put on him. But always three months of punishment turned into two weeks, and when he got bad and it was announced that he was banned from competing for two years, he would come back in a month. They hung him up because they knew that no one else has such a talent, and although they get tired of him, no other Finn will use the team’s work as well as Nykaenen – recalls Jan Kowal.

Our former jumper admired the Finn, knowing that he would never come close to his level, and at the same time he watched closely how a great athlete can not be a great man. – The Finns jumped and used many young, talented players, not only Nykaenen. But he beat everyone. When he got angry, he overturned tables and threw mugs – he says.

I told a stewardess once, “Listen girl, I fly much longer and farther than you. And without engines.”

Two victories day after day in Strbske Pleso in 1985 Nykaenen reportedly suffered not so much from a hangover as from a high. It was to be no different in the New Year’s competitions in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1988 and 1989. And probably many others. In 1987 in Ga-Pa he had so much fun that he started to demolish the hotel where he lived. He was expelled from the 4-Hills-Tournament and disqualified. He didn’t run for a month and a half. He returned for the World Championships in Oberstdorf. He immediately won silver individually and gold with his friends. The season in which he missed 11 out of 22 starts finished sixth in the World Cup.

He felt great. Even though the jumps already disgusted him. He quit training after the season. With his first wife, photo model Tiina Hassinen, he chose Sri Lanka as his place of life. Fortunately, he was persuaded to return. And he had the best season of his career. In 1988, he won everything he could at the Calgary Olympics, that is, both individual and team competitions. Before that he was the best in the 4-Hills-Tournament. And finally, he won the Crystal Ball, as the winner of as many as 10 out of 20 competitions in the season. It is worth noting that he only started in 16.

Why did Nykaenen win only two more times in his life after that? It’s an easy puzzle. In 1989, he already had two children with different women when he married another. Finland didn’t mind. She stared at him, adored him. In the same 1989, the number was as high as 65 percent. votes, he was voted the best athlete of the 80s. But Matti’s best was behind him. The more he fell out of the top, the louder he blamed everyone around him. In 1990 he wasn’t doing so well that instead of the 4-Hills-Tournament he flew to Tenerife to party. He still believed in his start at the next Olympics, in 1992 in Albertville, but he already announced that later he would speed up, switching to a motor boat and going there for success.

“I feel like I belong to every Finnish family”

He neither changed nor made it to the French Games. Only the 50th place at the World Championships in Val di Fiemme in February 1991 was his sporting end. He did not take part in any other competitions. Problems with the spine and knees, reluctance or inability to master the V style, which supplanted the classical style, the start of a musical career and subsequent love vicissitudes – this mixture blew Nykaenan off the hill forever.

“The hunger for sporting success made Matti Nykaenen decide to quit his singing career and return to the ski jumping hills. Recently, he went into the unknown, away from all the temptations he always succumbed to, to start solid training for the Olympic gold in Lillehammer. Fantastic achievements Nykaenen was constantly in the spotlight of the media in Finland, he was followed by a huge amount of public attention at every step, which turned his head and put an end to his career, according to his relatives. He married twice and divorced twice. He constantly had disciplinary and alcohol problems, but Matti Pulli, his longtime coach and head coach of the Finnish national ski jumping team, even now believes that Nykaenen can quickly return to the ski jumping elite, Reuters reported in December 1992. But Nykaenen did not come back.

The 90s were terrible for him. Apparently, he achieved success right after he became a singer at the instigation of businessmen. His debut album was certified gold. But due to his exuberant lifestyle, he quickly fell into poverty. He sold all his medals, earned money as a waiter, singer in a karaoke bar and stripper in gay bars. He even changed his last name for two years, showing how tired he was of Nykaen and everything about his popularity. Not a day goes by that someone doesn’t call and ask how I’m doing. This is f… my business – he said in one of the interviews. He took his new identity from his third wife, Sari Paanali. Wrong, he did not take – he borrowed. Only for two years.

“Whether I have skis or a woman under me – I always fly”

Matti’s fourth wife was Mervi Tapola. The tabloids lived this marriage like no other. The woman was the daughter of a Finnish sausage tycoon. The couple was married twice: in 2001-2003 and 2004-2010. In between weddings, in late 2003, Nykaenen promoted his autobiography “Greetings from Hell”. – Because he won everything, had the status of untouchables and was allowed to do everything. The city of Jyväskylä, where he was born, gave him a house, a car, a crown, just everything. His every prank was tolerated, which is why his private life became such a mess. I feel terribly sorry for him – said Mika Kojonkoski at the time.

And Nykaenen was proud of himself. “I’ve had more women in my life than any man. All skin colors, all shoe sizes. Hundreds of female fans camped out at the hotels where I slept in every part of the world,” he boasted. “Who could resist an athlete who, no matter how old he was, always looked 17?” -He was asking.

Without a shadow of shame, he admitted that for 15 years he had not seen his son from his first marriage, who was a year old when the marriage broke up. And that he only met his illegitimate daughter when she was 17 and came to introduce herself. Or actually ask for money. Among the illustrations, readers could find Tapola with a black eye. Conquered by Nykaenen, of course.

“This is life, I just honestly described it. Everyone should buy my book and put it next to the Bible. Because my story is equally true and shocking” – said the former jumper.

“Hell is nothing compared to my life”

Nykaenen was promoting his book shortly after he was given a four-month suspended prison sentence. It was a punishment for trying to attack Tapoli with a knife.

A year later, with a knife, he attacked a friend with whom he lost in a finger fight (a rivalry popular in Finland a bit like arm wrestling). He was to go to prison for 26 months. He left after nine, in 2005. Conditionally, e.g. because he had a heart attack. He stayed home for four days. And he went back to prison for four months. For beating his wife.

Nykaenen became a repeat offender. He really was in hell and he was trying to get everyone around him into it. In 2006, he stabbed a man he met in a pizzeria. In 2009, on Christmas Day, he tried to strangle Tapola with a robe belt. The trial dragged on until August, finally Nykaenen was sentenced to 16 months and Tapola filed for divorce for the 15th time. And this time the marriage was over forever.

Incarcerated once again, Nykaenen was finally forfeited. It was said that his aggression stemmed from his illness. Psychomotor hyperactivity did not prevent him from being associated with other women. In 2012, he was released and became the partner of Susanna Ruotsalainen, known from the Finnish Big Brother. At her persuasion, he agreed to create a reality show about his everyday life. The format was successful. But Matti was not happy. It seemed that he found peace only with his last wife. He met her in 2013. He was with Pia Talonpoika until his death in February 2019. He no longer repeated his golden thought that love is like a ball of yarn, so it begins and ends. If there was one thing he complained about, it was the lack of contact with his grandchildren. And at the same time, he understood that he was not such a father to his three children that these children would want to make him a grandfather to their children.

In 2018, Nykaenen was diagnosed with diabetes. And the cause of his death, aged only 55, was given as pancreatitis and pneumonia.

“It is with great regret that I think of the life of my greatest rival. He was the best on the hills. But apart from them, he had no one to protect him from false friends who used him, Jens Weissflog once said.