Simon Ammann biography
Simon Ammann, (born June 25, 1981, Grabs, Switzerland), Swiss ski jumper who gained the person regular hill and the person giant hill gold medals at each the 2002 and 2010 Olympic Winter Games, changing into the primary man to comb the person ski leaping occasions at two Olympics.
Ammann started ski leaping at age 11, studying the game at a 100-foot (30-metre) hill close to his household’s farm in Unterwasser, Switzerland. He first participated within the Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS) Ski Jumping World Cup competitors in the course of the 1997–98 season, and he was a member of the Swiss ski leaping group on the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, the place he completed in thirty fifth and thirty ninth place, respectively, within the particular person regular hill and particular person giant hill occasions. His nondescript Olympic debut didn't put together observers for what Ammann achieved on the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. There Ammann—regardless of having by no means beforehand gained a single occasion on the World Cup or FIS world championship degree—turned simply the second Olympian (after Finland’s Matti Nykanen in 1988) to win the traditional hill and huge hill double gold medals.
His phenomenal success made him an in a single day star in his native Switzerland, and the younger sensation then launched into a worldwide tour of the tv talk-show circuit. Ammann didn't handle to maintain his momentum into the next snowboarding seasons, nevertheless, profitable only a single World Cup occasion between the shut of the 2002 Games and the opening of the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy. Ammann’s post-Salt Lake City disappointments continued to mount on the Turin Games, the place his finest particular person end was fifteenth place within the giant hill occasion. He started specializing in refining the intricacies of his leaping approach, which finally helped Ammann seize the big hill gold and the traditional hill silver on the 2007 world championships. He gained 5 World Cup occasions in the course of the 2008–09 snowboarding season to ascertain himself as one of many favourites heading into the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. At the 2010 Games he dominated the competitors and simply took the golds within the regular hill and huge hill occasions, which not solely gave him the report Olympic “double-double” however made Ammann the one ski jumper in historical past to win 4 profession particular person Olympic gold medals. He then capped off his exceptional 2009–10 season by profitable his first-ever World Cup total title in March 2010 after having notched 9 occasion victories over the course of the season.
Although Ammann gained three World Cup occasions in the course of the 2010–11 season, he quickly started to expertise disappointing outcomes on the slopes. He certified for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and was given the honour of bearing the Swiss flag in the course of the opening ceremonies, however he completed simply seventeenth and twenty third within the regular and huge hill occasions, respectively. He had middling performances within the years between his Olympic appearances, and, on the 2018 Winter Olympics in P’yŏngch’ang, South Korea, he once more completed outdoors the highest 10 performers in every of his ski leaping occasions.