Vilho Palosaari is the eighth Finnish ski jumper to reach the individual world championship in ski jumping. Palosaari fell violently during the previous day’s training and broke his helmet.
Vilho Palosaari made an effort to become the ski jumping junior world champion in the normal hill competition held in Whistler, Canada. The 18-year-old Finnish jumper won by a margin of 0.6 points ahead of Austria Jonas Schuster.
The World Youth Championship gold in the individual competition is Finland’s first in 18 years. Joonas Ikonen made an effort to become world champion in 2005. It had already been 14 years since the previous medal.
Palosaari became the eighth Finnish jumper to reach the World Youth Championship gold. In the past, they have been able to do that trick Matti Nykkänen, Ari-Pekka Nikkola, Toni Nieminen, Janne Ahonen twice, Brother Matti Lindström, Janne Happonen and Ikonen.
Palosaari already shone in training and blew the 100-meter jumps.
Palosaari led the competition already after the first round with a 98-meter jump. In the second round, the jump reached 95 meters.
The competition schedule was late, which is why Palosaari did not get the best energy for the competition. It was enough though.
– There weren’t that many good jumps in the competition. The schedule was unnecessarily short. There were ugly jumps, Palosaari commented to Urheilu.
Palosaari tells how he handled the situation.
– I thought these were the basic workouts. It’s useless to start thinking. Those jumps came more from the back of the head.
2001
1. Brother-Matti Lindström
2002
1. Janne Happonen
3. Kalle Keituri
2004
3. Olli Pekkala
2005
1. Joonas Ikonen
2009
3. Ville Larinto
2023
1. Vilho Palosaari
“The monos broke”
After securing the championship, Palosaari got to the “golden chair” of his teammates.
– When I came to the corner, I was pretty sure that this wasn’t enough. I didn’t dare vent. But when I heard that I won, it was a different matter.
Due to its age, Palosaari is also eligible to represent next year’s World Junior Championships.
– In the last two years, these games have gone to shit. Fortunately, I succeeded now.
Finland’s head coach Lauri Hakola reveals that Palosaari had challenging starting points for the competition. He fell violently during the previous day’s training.
– He fell quite ugly. The monos broke. We had a pretty busy night organizing the equipment.
– We managed to get the equipment in order and the man was intact enough that he was able to perform really well considering the situation. I think that shows mental strength.