The men's large hill individual ski jumping competition for the 1972 Winter Olympics was held in Okurayama Ski Jump Stadium. It occurred on 11 February.
In the competition on the Okurayama jumping hill, conditions were "variable and unfair" according to a Norwegian account of the 1972 Games published in 2006, and the result is described as "the greatest surprise of all time on the jumping hill". Olympiske vinterleker 1924–2006, Akilles forlag 2006, In the first run, the 19-year-old Zakopane mechanic Wojciech Fortuna completed a leap of 111 metres, while Manfred Wolf of East Germany was runner-up after the first run having jumped 107 metres. Jiří Raška, Gariy Napalkov and Tauno Käyhkö, all counted among the favourites according to Jorsett's account, were all more than 12 metres behind, Yukio Kasaya, who won on the normal hill, landed on 90 metres, and Ingolf Mork, the 1972 Four Hills Tournament winner, touched down on 88 metres.
Fortuna's second jump was a more modest 87.5 metres; still, the tenths of a point remained on his side. Again according to Jorsett, Steiner (103 metres), Schmidt (101 metres) and Käyhkö (100.5 metres) got lucky with the wind in the second run, but all finished within 0.7 points of Fortuna. This was the smallest margin between first and fourth to date.
Pudgar's eighth place was the best placing by a Yugoslav at the Winter Olympics ski jumping until Matjaž Debelak won bronze at the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the best placing by a Yugoslav athlete at any Winter Olympic event until alpine skier Bojan Križaj finished fourth in giant slalom at the 1980 Winter Olympics.
Results
Rank Athlete Country Jump 1 Jump 2 Total Wojciech Fortuna 130.4 89.5 219.9 Walter Steiner 101.6 118.2 219.8 Rainer Schmidt 106.4 112.9 219.3 4 Tauno Käyhkö 104.5 114.7 219.2 5 Manfred Wolf 120.3 94.8 215.1 6 Gariy Napalkov 111.3 98.8 210.1 7 Yukio Kasaya 124.9 84.5 209.4 8 Danilo Pudgar 98.5 107.5 206.0 9 Esko Rautionaho 95.7 110.1 205.8 10 Jiří Raška 111.1 93.6 204.7 11 Rolf Nordgren 105.5 98.0 203.5 12 Akitsugu Konno 109.7 89.4 199.1 13 Kari Ylianttila 99.1 98.3 197.4 14 Takashi Fujisawa 107.2 89.9 197.1 15 Zbyněk Hubač 96.1 98.6 194.7 15 Frithjof Prydz 89.0 105.7 194.7 17 Zdenek Mezl 104.7 89.6 194.3 18 Tadeusz Pawlusiak 89.3 94.0 183.3 19 Hiroshi Itagaki 96.0 87.1 183.1 20 Henry Glaß 97.9 85.1 183.0 21 Sergey Yanin 93.1 88.3 181.4 22 Josef Zehnder 97.0 84.1 181.1 23 Drago Pudgar 95.6 84.1 179.7 24 Reinhold Bachler 88.9 90.3 179.2 25 Ron Steele 86.6 91.1 177.7 26 Leoš Škoda 96.3 80.0 176.3 27 Günther Göllner 93.0 82.3 175.3 28 Ingolf Mork 95.6 77.7 173.3 29 Adam Krzysztofiak 85.6 87.5 173.1 30 Greg Swor 77.2 95.6 172.8 31 Stanisław Gąsienica Daniel 83.2 87.9 171.1 32 Rauno Miettinen 79.7 91.0 170.7 32 Anatoly Zheglanov 73.7 97.0 170.7 34 Jo Inge Bjørnebye 86.7 81.1 167.8 35 K'oba Ts'akadze 69.7 95.5 165.2 36 Jerry Martin 89.1 74.0 163.1 37 Bjørn Wirkola 97.7 64.8 162.5 37 Marjan Mesec 78.7 83.8 162.5 39 Peter Wilson 78.7 80.9 159.6 40 Heinz Wosipiwo 74.3 85.3 159.6 41 Anders Lundqvist 85.8 72.2 158.0 42 Hans Schmid 101.8 54.6 156.4 43 Max Golser 84.9 68.7 153.6 44 Ernst von Grünigen 79.8 73.2 153.0 45 Ulf Kvendbo 75.6 77.0 152.6 46 Rudi Wanner 69.6 82.7 152.3 47 Scott Berry 76.1 75.6 151.7 48 Peter Štefančič 67.6 77.6 145.2 49 Yvan Richard 68.8 73.4 142.2 50 Alain Macle 65.9 56.9 122.8 51 Jacques Gaillard 60.8 61.9 122.7 52 Alfred Grosche 44.6 75.0 119.6
References