Few have been able to perform at the age of 16 like Minja Korhonen and Janne Ahonen.
Minja Korhonen conquered the podium place of the first World Cup combined on Friday at only 16 years old and made Finnish sports history at the same time. Urheilu’s expert in hill jumping Janne Ahonen could do even better at the same age, as he won the first World Cup competition of his career.
– It will be 30 years this weekend. A 16-year-old guy won the first World Cup competition in Engelberg, so I did something about it then, Ahonen stated on the sofa of Urheilustudio.
At that time, Ahonen defeated many big names. Swiss Sylvain Freiholz was second in the race and Norway Björn Myrbakken was third. Also left behind were names like Jiri Parma, Ernst Vettori and Jens Weissflog.
Ahonen admitted that he was downright ashamed to win.
– It was a bit of an embarrassing situation. I felt like I was going to spoil the race, Ahonen laughed.
– when I was standing there on the first floor, I was really humble and maybe a little embarrassed. It featured Jens Weissflog and partners on the lower podiums. “Sorry, let’s hope it won’t happen again.”
However, Ahonen’s “wish” did not come true, as Kuningaskotka won 36 World Cup competitions and 108 World Cup prize places in his career. In addition, he achieved two Olympic silver medals, won five world championships and numerous lesser World Cup medals.