- Bjørn Wirkola
Bjørn Wirkola (born
August 4 1943 in Alta) is formerski jumper andfootballer fromNorway .He became World Champion in
Oslo in 1966, winning both the large and normal hill competitions. The1966 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships were also held in conjunction with theHolmenkollen ski festival , making Wirkola the Holmenkollen champion as well (a feat he would repeat the following year). Wirkola won theFour Hills Tournament from 1967 to 1969, and is still the only ski jumper who has won this tournament three years in a row. He also competed at three Winter Olympics: in 1964 he finished eleventh in the Nordic combined, in1968 Winter Olympics inGrenoble , he achieved his best finish with a fourth place in the individual normal hill, 0.6 points behind the bronze medalistBaldur Preiml ofAustria , and the1972 Winter Olympics , where he finished 37th in the wind-ravaged event in the Okurayama large hill.For his achievements as a ski jumper, Wirkola was awarded the
Holmenkollen medal in 1968 (shared withKing Olav V ,Assar Rönnlund , andGjermund Eggen ). The common parlance expressionjumping after Wirkola has come to refer to situations where one embarks on a task where one's predecessor has done a particularly good job – or where one is unlikely to succeed.In 1971, he began to play competitive football. He played for Rosenborg in the
Norwegian Premier League from 1971 to 1974, and won both league and cup championships with Rosenborg in 1971. The same year he was awardedEgebergs Ærespris (where recipients need to be at top international level in one sport and at least at top national level in a different sport).References
*FIS|S=JP|ID=66614
* [http://www.skiforeningen.no/holmenkollen/holmenkollen_historikk Holmenkollen medalists] - click Holmenkollmedaljen for downloadable pdf file no icon
* [http://www.skiforeningen.no/holmenkollen/holmenkollen_historikk Holmenkollen winners since 1892] - click Vinnere for downloadable pdf file no icon
* "Olympiske vinterleketer 1924 – 2006", Åge Dalby, Jan Greve, Per Jorsett, Akilles forlag, 2006, ISBN 8272861623, pp. 93–101. no icon
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