The all-time jumper became a stripper. He developed alcoholism when he was 14 years old

On the third anniversary of our death, we refresh the text we published a year ago.

She took part in 143 competitions. 46 will win, and 76 will jump on the podium. So he will win every third start, and he jumps into the best three every 1.88 of the competition! These are unusual numbers, no one has ever had a similar one. Jumping is not math, but for those who have not watched Fin’s show, simple math can tell a lot.

In the 42-year history of the World Cup, only Gregor Schlierenzauer will win more competitions than. The Austrian has 53 wins. But in 275 starts. This means he wins on average every fifth competition. Let’s look further. Historic number three is Adam Maysz. They make their 39 wins in 349 starts. So it wins every ninth competition. Kamil Stoch, on the other hand, won his 39 victories in 377 competitions, so on average he was victorious in every 9.7 competitions.

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

• became the Olympic champion
• wins the world championship
• to win the world championship in racing
• triumph in the 4-Hills-Tournament
• to be the best overall in the World Cup

Yes, it’s Nykaenen. He will do everything in seven years. Almost everything several times. He started very early and jumps much too fast. He will burn out at the age of 26. And so he would hold out for a long time, since he started into alcoholism at the age of 14.

“Problem with alcohol? Is sometimes there is no alcohol” *

“When I was 14 I got drunk with three bottles of beer. But I have no problem with alcohol. I’ve seen people suffering from alcoholism. They drink so much that I can’t walk. And even after four beers I can run” – says 40-year-old Nykaenen in his autobiography.

A tiny boy from Jyväskylä, his great talent began to reveal himself at the age of seven. And when he was a teenager, at the university in his city, scientists helped the people of sport revolutionize jumping. Biomechanics, aerodynamics and physiology experts worked with the trainers to devise the workouts that took Nykaenena and his colleagues to the top. The coaches still had to make sure that the most capable Matti rolled off the top as little as possible. And when it falls repeatedly, they must have lifted it.

And 31 won competitions in the World Cup and three won seasons, plus gold and Olympic silver, gold and world championships won individually, two championship titles in the team, gold and two M in flights, won the Four Hills Tournament – in 1986 Ju Nykaenen, 23, had such an impressive collection of triumphs. He will win everything then. And it was then that he started collecting judgments. The first for stealing beer and cigarettes from a shop. Then only the fine was over. In the years that followed, Matti’s alcohol-narcotic rush was much worse for him.

– I remember a lot of suspensions imposed on him by the Finns. But the three-month punishment was always two weeks, and if the fall and it was announced that she was banned from starting for two years, she would come back in a month. They hung him up because they knew that no one else had such a talent, and even though they struggle with him, no other Finn would use the work of the team as well as Nykaenen – recalls Jan Kowal.

Our former jumper admires Fin, knowing that he never gets close to his level, and at the same time he watches closely how a great athlete cannot be a great man. – The Finns have jumped and used many young, talented players, not only Nykaenen. But he trumps everyone. When he gets pissed, he overturns tables and throws mugs – he says.

I once said to the flight attendant, “Go girl, I’m flying 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 with a hangover as with joy. It would be no different in the New Year’s competitions in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1988 and 1989. And probably in many more. In 1987, Ga-Pa was so crazy that he began to demolish the hotel where he lives. He was kicked out of the 4-Hills-Tournament and disqualified. I didn’t take off for a month and a half. He will return to the world championship in Oberstdorf. He immediately won silver individually and gold with his friends. The season in which he missed 11 out of 22 starts will jump in sixth place in the World Cup.

He felt great. Even though he hates jumping. He will quit training after the season. With his first wife, photo model Tiin Hassinen, Sri Lank chose his place of life. Fortunately, he will be persuaded to come back. And I have the best season of my career. In 1988, he will win everything he could at the games in Calgary, both individual and team competitions. Previously he was the best in the 4-Hills-Tournament. Finally, I will take Krysztow Kul as the winner of 10 out of 20 competitions of the season. It is worth noting that it only started in the 16.

Why then Nykaenen will win only two more times in his life? It is not a difficult puzzle. In 1989, he already had two children with different women when they got married or with another. Finland did not mind. She was staring at him, she adores him. In the same 1989, the numbers as much as 65 percent. He was voted Best Athlete of the 1980s. But Matti’s best was over. The more often he falls out of a man, the more he chases to blame everyone around for it. In 1990 he was not so successful that he went to Tenerife instead of the 4-Hills-Tournament. He supposedly still believes in his start at the next Olympics, in 1992 in Albertville, but he has already announced that he will accelerate later, changing to a motorboat and going there for success.

“I feel like I belong to every Finnish family”

Neither change nor make it to the French Games. Only 50th place at the M in Val di Fiemme in February 1991 was his sports blanket. She did not take part in subsequent competitions. Spine and knee problems, let’s say the inability to master the V style, which would displace the classical style, start a music career and another love affair – this mix will blow Nykaenan off the hill forever.

“With a series of sporting successes, Matti Nykaenen decided to quit his career as a singer and return to the ski jumps. Recently he has gone into the unknown, and away from all the temptations he always succumbs to, he will start solid training with the idea of ​​Olympic gold in Lillehammer. Fantastic achievements. Nykaenena continued to be the center of attention of the media in Finland, with enormous public interest with him at every turn, which caused him to roll over his head and his career was cut short – this is how his loved ones express the opinion. He constantly had disciplinary and alcohol problems, but Matti Pulli, his longtime coach and head coach of the Finnish national team, even now believes that Nykaenen is able to make a quick return to the jumper’s elite, the Reuters Agency reported in December 1992. But Nykaenen will not come back.

The 90s were terrible for him. Supposedly, he would achieve success right after he was persuaded by businessmen to become a singer. His debut album will gain the status of a gold album. But because of his riotous lifestyle, he quickly becomes poor. He sells all his medals, makes money as a waiter, a singer at a karaoke bar, and a stripper at a gay bar. He will even change his name for two years, showing how tired he is with Nykaen and everything that is known about his popularity. – Not a day goes by without someone calling and asking how they are doing. This is, f …, my case – he said in one of the interviews. He took the same from his third wife, Sari Paanala. lee, not take – borrow. Only for two years.

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

Matti’s fourth was Mervi Tapola. The tabloids lived this marriage like no other. The woman was the daughter of a Finnish park tycoon. The couple were married twice: in 2001-2003 and 2004-2010. Midzy lubami, at the end of 2003, Nykaenen promoted the autobiography “Greetings from Hell”. Because he got everything, he was invulnerable, and he was allowed to do anything. 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 chaos. I feel sorry for him – says Mika Kojonkoski then.

And Nykaenen was proud of himself. “I’ve had more women in my life than any man. Of all skin colors, all shoe sizes. Hundreds of female fans ended up in hotels where I slept in every part of the world,” he boasts. “Who can resist an athlete who, no matter how old he is, always looks 17?” – he asks.

Without a trace of shame, she admitted that in 15 years she had not seen her son from her first marriage, who was one year old when the marriage broke up. And that I would not know my wife until she was 17 and that she would introduce herself. Actually, he will ask for money. Among the pictures readers might find Tapol with a black eye. Obviously conquered by Nykaenen.

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

“Hell is nothing compared to my life”

Nykaenen promoted his book shortly after receiving a four-month suspended prison sentence. It was a punishment for trying to attack with Tapoli’s knife.

A year later, with the knife, he threw himself at a friend with whom he would lose the fight on the fingers (this is a competition popular in Finland, somewhat reminiscent of a hand struggle). He had 26 months in jail. He came out nine in 2005. Conditionally, incl. because he had a heart attack. He will stay home for four days. And he’ll be back in jail for four months. For beating his wife.

Nykaenen became a repeat offender. He really was in Hell and tried to get everyone around him. In 2006, I hurt a man I met in a pizzeria. In 2009, on Christmas Day, an attempt was made to strangle Tapol with a bathrobe belt. The trial lasts until August, Nykaenen was eventually sentenced to 16 months in prison, and Tapola filed for divorce for the 15th time. And this time the marriage is over forever.

Nykaenen, imprisoned once again, was finally lost. His aggression, it was judged, stemmed from his illness. Psychomotor hyperactivity does not prevent him from associating with new women. In 2012 he went free and became a partner of Susanna Ruotsalainen, known from Finnish Big Brother. At her urging, he agreed to create a reality show about his everyday life. The format was successful. But Matti wasn’t happy. It seemed he only found peace with his last wife. He will meet with her in 2013. He was with Pi Talonpoik until his death in February 2019. He has not repeated his golden thought that love is like a knot, so it begins and ends. If he complains about anything, it is about the lack of contact with his grandchildren. And at the same time, he understood that he was not such a father to three of his children that these children would want to make him a grandfather for their children.

In 2018, Nykaenen was diagnosed with cyclones. And the causes of his death at the age of only 55 were pancreatitis and pneumonia.

– With great regret I think about the life of my greatest rival. He would be the best on the hills. But apart from them, he had no one to protect him from false friends who used him, Jens Weissflog would say.