Flying forever
Horst Bulau remembers Matti Nykanen, the Finnish ski jumper who starred at Calgary Games
Horst Bulau spent the best of his ski-jumping years battling Matti Nykanen to the bottom of the hill and the top of the podium.
The Canadian and the Finn were high-flying friends and the fiercest of competitors on the World Cup circuit in the early 1980s, and both eased into retirement a decade later.
After Nykanen died in Finland on Monday at age 55, Bulau paid tribute to a man he chased all over Europe and North America.
“I had a great career, but he had an outstanding career,” said Bulau. “You look at it — I was very fortunate to win 13 times on the World Cup and have X-amount of top-three finishes. Anybody would be over the moon with the results, which I was. But what he did, he was just one of those ultra-gifted, super-special guys who just took it to the next level.”
Nykanen won 46 World Cup gold medals, four Olympic golds and a silver, five world championship golds, a silver and three bronze. He also won the prestigious Four Hills and Ski Flying titles. Almost three decades after he walked away from the sport, Nykanen remains the most dominant male ski jumper in history.
“When it comes to this level, for anybody to win that many times and have the results he did, it’s just the mentality,” said Bulau, who at 56 is an automotive sales executive with McLaren Toronto. He is also a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.
“I know what it was like. You get into a groove and you win, you’ve got this mental edge, you feel you can beat everybody. You just do everything right. That was one thing he for sure had. That’s usually what separates the guys who are winning on a regular basis from the guys who win once or has the odd top-10 finish.
“I think any sport is like that. It just comes down to mental toughness because we all train really hard and we all want to win and succeed but not all of us can.”
Nykanen burst into the Canadian consciousness at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, where the Flying Finn won all three gold medals: The normal and large hill individual competitions, as well as the team event.
Nykanen was the antithesis of Eddie (The Eagle) Edwards, the hapless and bespectacled British jumper who finished dead-last in both individual events and became the most loveable loser at those Games.
Calgary was a highlight for Bulau, too, as he placed seventh on the large hill. It remains the best finish by a Canadian ski jumper at the Olympics.
Bulau also cherishes his memories of the 1982-83 World Cup season, dominated as it was by himself and Nykanen. Together, they won 17 of 25 events on the circuit.
Bulau won seven gold, took four silver and two bronze. Nykanen won 10 times, finished second twice and earned a single bronze. At season’s end, Nykanen had edged Bulau by just 10 measly points, 270 to 260.
“All those World Cup and world championship titles, it was truly amazing to see him do what he did and to be part of it,” said Bulau. “It makes me feel really good about competing head-to-head with him in 1983, when we were battling for the overall World Cup title. There was a time when he was ahead, there was a time when I was leading the overall.”
Bulau’s chances at the title that year were diminished by a hellacious crash during a ski flying event in Harrachov, Czechoslovakia, that left him bruised and concussed. He spent a night in hospital, then went on to compete in the final two World Cup events, but couldn’t catch Nykanen, who won the first of his World Cup titles that year. It started an unparalleled run of success.
In retirement, Nykanen also made headlines, though these were not flattering. He was twice sentenced to jail time; 26 months for a stabbing in 2004, 16 months for attacking his then-wife Mervi in 2009. His problems with alcohol were widely known. And when he ran into financial trouble, he worked briefly as a stripper at a restaurant in Finland.
Nykanen had been diagnosed with diabetes last year, but the cause of his death has not been released.
“He was obviously a bit of a crazy guy,” said Bulau. “He competed hard. To be as successful as he was, you have to be on the edge with ski jumping, from the push to the takeoff. If you didn’t to that correctly, you were far behind.
“He’s one of those guys that lived life to the fullest in everything he did and probably lived it very much on the edge.”