Ahonen fights serious addiction and confesses. “I crossed the boundaries”

it was the first time he had said so openly about his problems, although these were no secret. In his biography there is an account of his incessant jump in Planica in 2005. Ahonen reached 240 meters, but fell. Perhaps it would have been different had it not been for the fact that he had a gigantic hangover at the time. He had spent the previous night partying. Years later, he made the decision to quit alcohol.

Ahonen admitted that he is fighting alcohol addiction

– I decided to stop drinking in 2013. I noticed that the consumption of alcohol in my case was no longer reasonable. I did feel a bit of pressure from outside, but that was my decision. I found that I am a tough guy and I can do it myself – the legendary Finnish jumper admitted in an interview with Finnish TV “Yle”.

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Ahonen stayed with this decision for eight years. He reached for interest again in the spring of last year. – I thought it would be okay. I had a few beers with my friends. I thought I had matured, learned and got smarter, but I was immediately back to square one. Nothing has changed. Then I realized I needed help and started looking outside. Even though I haven’t had a drink in eight years, my disease has not been cured. I hope I never have to deal with it again, he said.

He added, however, that since he quit drinking alcohol, he has not achieved any significant success. The 44-year-old did not prepare particularly for this event. As he said himself, he just wanted to have fun and see if he would be able to jump on the large hill in Lahti.

It’s not like I want to go back to the World Cup, create a competition for someone in Finland. No, these are just a few jumps that I want to do for myself –

Janne Ahonen is one of the most successful ski jumpers in history. The Finn has won five times and has won the Crystal Ball twice. Additionally, Ahonen won 36 World Cup competitions, stood on the podium 108 times and was an individual world champion twice. Altogether, Ahonen ended his career three times – for the first time in 2008. However, he returned to jumping a year and a half later. He broke up with ski jumping for the second time in 2011 but came back in the 2013/14 season. He competed in the official competition for the last time in the spring of 2018.