Ski jumping idol doesn’t get enough: Kasai was “really scared” but had big plans

Noriaki Kasai is a legend of his sport: Nobody starts more often in the ski jumping world cup than the Japanese. But the heyday of medals and successes is long gone. But Kasai doesn’t give up: the 49-year-old has long-term plans.

Noriaki Kasai, the man who sailed down a World Cup hill for the first time in 1988, was scared. No, “I was really scared,” said the Japanese, who is now 49 years old. He almost broke his neck when a gust of wind caught him during jumping training in Rovaniemi, Finland, and whirled him through. While other sports legends of this age have long been telling humorous or hair-raising stories from back then, Kasai reports on his everyday sporting life. It has long been taking place very far from the world’s best.

Kasai did not make it into the Japanese World Cup team. Not again. In November 2020 it became known that after 32 years, 569 individual starts in the World Cup, three Olympic and eight World Cup medals and 17 World Cup victories, the pterosaur would no longer be part of the jumping elite. Since becoming world ski flying champion in 1992, Kasai had taken part in 28 Four Hills Tournament up to the winter of 2019, only one time when he was absent due to a self-imposed break: that was in 1994/95. In 2019 they didn’t want to take him with them anymore, Kasai was kicked out of the World Cup team and has not returned to this day.

Kobayashi owes him “so much”

The new generation of Japanese jumpers around high-flyer Ryoyu Kobayashi has long since flown away, the superstar will presumably win the Four Hills Tournament for the second time in the evening in Bischofshofen, perhaps for the second time with victories in all four competitions. No jumper has ever succeeded in doing this, it would be the next entry in the history of sports.

Kasai, on the other hand, has long been history in terms of sport. In 2014, at the age of 41, he still won Olympic silver on the large hill and bronze with the team, in the same year he improved his own age record with his last World Cup victory in Kuusamo on November 29: he was 42 years and 176 days old at the competition He shared the victory with the Swiss Simon Ammann, then a comparatively tender 33 years old – and this year he is still there at the age of 40. At Kasai’s age record, it was ten years since his last World Cup victory, nine poor years followed – and suddenly the oldie jumped again for a few years.

In spring 2015 he still flew to his personal best of 240.5 meters. In ski flying, where Kasai, with his unique feeling of flight, can compensate for the dwindling athleticism much better than on the smaller hills, he even landed on the podium twice in 2017. The fact that he was allowed to jump in the World Cup for so long, successes or legends ago, was also due to the generation that was to come after him – it was simply too weak. Kasai himself is partly responsible for the fact that things are going much better for the Japanese team than in the last decade. “I owe him so much,” said top star Ryoyu Kobayashi. As the sports director of the Tsuchiya team, the jumping team of a real estate multinational, Kasai brought the youngsters to world level himself.

But even if he can only see the boys flying from a distance these days at the Four Hills Tournament, he cannot let go. “Ski jumping gives me a great feeling,” he once said in the media of the International Olympic Committee. “It’s fabulous and something I can hardly describe in words.” It is an addiction and it seems difficult to let go. “I will probably jump until I am 60. I can assure you that I have no lack of patience,” he revealed at a competition in Japan at the end of December, in which he measured himself against the national competition that remained at home – and after two days of competition 26th was. “I planned to get into the top ten, but things didn’t go the way I wanted them to. It doesn’t change the fact that I’m still good at it,” he told Japanese media. The Polish portal skijumping.pl smugly commented: “As he is used to, Kasai does not seem to be bothered by his bad form and remains positive.”

“Pretty disappointing”

The last time he was at the Japanese championship was in October 22nd. “That’s pretty disappointing,” said the always friendly sports senior, commenting on the disaster. If it wasn’t time to stop jumping, they asked the man who got his last World Cup point three years ago. Kasai was briefly resolute: “I haven’t lost all my strength yet. I’ll be 50 next year, but I’ll keep going.” It was already clear to him, who would be 49 years old at his ninth Olympic Games, that it would not be easier for him: “If things go well, I’ll start in the Continental Cup,” he said after he was forced to leave the World Cup. Team. “No matter where I’m sent, I want to perform without grumbling.” That still applies.

And so he still jumps on and on. In Japan they continue to admire the old master, he is not seen as a mascot – although he was recently not even allowed to jump in the second-rate Continental Cup. At home he is more popular than his younger, already more successful successor, Kobayashi.

What Kasai is denied, two other jumpers of his generation have achieved: Simon Amman, who has just announced his likely departure at the end of the season, still jumps, often in the finals. The South Korean Heung-Chul Choi is largely ignored. He is now also 40 years old and made his debut in the World Cup on December 20, 1997. Choi was there when Martin Schmitt had his heyday, he witnessed Sven Hannawald’s “Grand Slam” on the 2001/2002 tour. Another ski jumping time. Of course, Choi never developed the charisma of the legend Kasai: At the Four Hills Tournament, 35th place in the overall ranking is the best place in the books. That was in 1999/2000, in Oberstdorf in 30th place he even beat the great Kasai who had missed the final round.

“Then just four years later”

In terms of sport, however, Choi did not excel in his 23rd participation in the Four Hills Tournament: In Oberstdorf and in the substitute competition in Bischofshofen, Choi was penultimate – in the qualification, mind you. In Garmisch he even came last. After all: in recognition of his three gold medals at the Universiade, which is enormously important in Asia, his country pays him a lifelong pension. So it actually has to be fun. And Choi, who never celebrated any notable success in his career in the big ski circus, probably has something ahead of the big Kasai: In a weak South Korean team, he can still dream of participating in the Olympics in February. The Swiss Ammann recently secured qualification for Beijing.

If it doesn’t work out with the Olympics in 2022, said Kasai recently, “then just four years later.” Or later. “I want to aim for 2030 when Sapporo applies to host.” Kasai is serious and the Japanese media are careful not to interpret this as stubborn old age. “Asahi Shimbun” wrote of “obsession” recently, yes, but that was meant with great respect. That the beloved “pterosaur” will really compete again at the Olympic Games – it would then be his ninth – nobody thinks anymore, except him.

And so he continues to train towards some uncertain goal and at home Ms. Reina and the two children have to hope that the husband and father don’t jump over their heads when they are old athletes. “Really scared” he was in Rovaniemi, said Kasai. Hardly anyone noticed the dramatic near-fall in the far north of Europe, so far from home. Maybe it’s time really slowly.

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