Simon Ammann (born 25 June 1981) is a Swiss ski jumper, and double Olympic Champion at both 2002 and 2010 Winter Olympics.
Ammann was born in Grabs, Switzerland, to Margit and Heinrich Ammann and raised in Unterwasser, Switzerland. He has two brothers and three sisters. He married Yana Yanovskaya on 25 June 2010. He made his debut as a 16-year-old unknown during the 1997–1998 Ski jumping World Cup season. Ammann qualified for the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan, where he finished 35th.
Prior to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, he crashed and suffered injuries. Despite this, he won the gold medal in both the Individual Normal Hill and Individual Long Hill events, only the second person to accomplish this feat. (The first was Matti Nykänen in 1988). Following the games, Ammann became a star in Switzerland and also made appearances on American talk shows, such as the Late Show with David Letterman (on 20 February 2002).
Ammann also won the ski jumping event at the Holmenkollen Ski Festival in 2002 and 2007. This would earn him the Holmenkollen medal in 2007 (Shared with Frode Estil, Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset, King Harald V, and Queen Sonja of Norway).
He made his third Olympic appearance in 2006 in Torino, Italy.
On 24 February 2007, he won his first medal at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships with a victory in the Individual Large Hill in Sapporo, Japan. Ammann would follow this with a silver medal in the Individual Normal Hill the following week. Ammann would complete his set of medals with a bronze medal in the Individual Normal Hill event at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 in Liberec, Czech Republic.
On 13 February 2010, competing in his fourth Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Ammann won the gold medal in the Individual Normal Hill event. He became the first man in Olympic history to win gold medals in the Individual Normal Hill event in two Olympics.
On 20 February 2010, he also won the gold medal in the Individual Large Hill event at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, thus becoming the first man to win gold medals in both individual ski jumping events in two Olympic games, as well as the most decorated Swiss Olympic athlete of all time. His first jump was 144 meters. His second jump was 138 meters.
In March 2010 Ammann became the overall winner of 2009–10 FIS Ski Jumping World Cup, winning all four events at the Nordic Tournament and nine World Cup events in one season overall. He finished the season by becoming the ski flying World Champion in Planica on the largest hill in the world. His 236.5 m fourth round jump was the longest jump of the event and then the second longest jump in history.
Ammann is a student of information technology and electrical engineering at ETH Zurich since 2006. Ammann currently lives in Schindellegi, Switzerland.
Read more about Simon Ammann: Season Titles, World Cup Victories
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