Noriaki Kasai

Noriaki Kasai
葛西 紀明
Country  Japan
Full name 葛西 紀明
Born (1972-06-06) 6 June 1972
Shimokawa, Hokkaido, Japan
Height 1.76 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)
Ski club Tsuchiya Home Ski Team
Personal best 240.5 m (789 ft)
Vikersund, 15 Feb 2015
Kulm, 15 Jan 2016
World Cup career
Seasons 1989–1994
1996–present
Individual wins 17
Team wins 3
Indiv. podiums 61
Team podiums 17
Indiv. starts 505
Team starts 58
Nordic titles 1 (1999)
Medal record
Men's ski jumping
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
Olympic Games 0 2 1
World Championships 0 2 5
Ski Flying World Championships 1 0 0
Total 1 4 6
Olympic Games
1994 Lillehammer Team LH
2014 Sochi Individual LH
2014 Sochi Team LH
FIS Nordic World Ski Championships
1999 Ramsau Team LH
2003 Val di Fiemme Team LH
2003 Val di Fiemme Individual NH
2003 Val di Fiemme Individual LH
2007 Sapporo Team LH
2009 Liberec Team LH
2015 Falun Mixed NH
Men's ski flying
FIS Ski Flying World Championships
1992 Harrachov Individual
Updated on 4 December 2016.

Noriaki Kasai (葛西 紀明 Kasai Noriaki) (born 6 June 1972) is a Japanese ski jumper. He is a 1992 ski flying world champion, 1999 Nordic Tournament winner and holds many records. In 2016 he was honoured with a Guinness World Records certificate for the most World Cup individual starts not just in ski jumping but in all world cup disciplines run by International Ski Federation.[1]

He currently holds the record of 505 individual starts and has been competing in his 28th season in the World Cup in four different decades: the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. He holds the world record for the longest jump for athletes over 35 and 40 years old with 240.5 meters (789 ft), which he set and then tied in Vikersund 2015 and Kulm 2016. He has the record number of appearances in ski jumping at the olympics, the Nordic world championships and the ski flying world championships. He is the oldest ski jumping Olympic medalist at 41 years and 256 days old,[2] the oldest individual World Cup winner at 42 years and 176 days old,[3] the oldest ski jumper on World Cup individual podium and the oldest World Cup performer ever at 44 years and 181 days old.

Career

1988: World Cup debut

Kasai made his World Cup debut on 17 December 1988 in Sapporo, Japan at age of 16 reaching 31st place. A year later he performed at his first Nordic World Championships in Lahti, Finland.

1992: World champion

He won his first and to date only major championship at the FIS Ski Flying World Championships 1992 in Harrachov, Czechoslovakia. He won after a second day of competition which also counted for world cup points was cancelled after strong wind and crash of Christof Duffner. At that time he was among the world's top jumpers, known for his extraordinary style, holding his body almost flat between his skis.

1994: Olympic team medal

In 1994 he was a member of the Japanese national team that won a silver medal in the team large hill and finished at 5th in the individual large hill at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. He had a break in 1994/95 season.

1999: Nordic Tournament

Kasai also won the prestigious ski jumping competition at the Holmenkollen Ski Festival and Nordic Tournament overall in 1999. He has a total of seven medals at the Nordic World Championships, including two silver (team large hill: 1999, 2003) and five bronzes (individual normal hill in 2003; individual large hill in 2003; team large hill in 2007 and 2009; and mixed team normal hill in 2015). At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, he finished 8th on the large hill and 17th on the normal hill.

2014: Oldest Olympic medalist

At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi he competed at record seventh Olympics appearance and took the silver medal in the large hill individual and bronze in team large hill becoming the oldest ski jumper ever to take a medal at the winter Olympics.

On 29 November 2014 Kasai became the oldest world cup winner when he shared win with Switzerland's Simon Ammann in Ruka, Finland. This is his last win and currently stands at 17 World Cup wins.

On 22 February 2015 Kasai took bronze medal in FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2015 at the mixed team event and became the oldest medalist Nordic world ski championships. He performed for the record 12th time on this competition.

2016: World Cup start No. 500

On 4 March 2016 he was on a World Cup podium in Wisla at the age of 43y and 272d, the oldest contestant to mount the podium in history. He is jumping on a very high level, being top ten overall the whole season and breaking records.

World Cup

Standings

Season Overall SF 4H RA NT JP
1988/89 – N/A – N/A N/A N/A
1989/90 24 N/A 19 N/A N/A N/A
1990/91 – – 73 N/A N/A N/A
1991/92 9 7 – N/A N/A N/A
1992/93 3rd, bronze medalist(s) – 2nd, silver medalist(s) N/A N/A N/A
1993/94 6 19 4 N/A N/A N/A
1995/96 36 26 10 N/A N/A 36
1996/97 17 23 24 N/A 11 15
1997/98 10 13 24 N/A 4 10
1998/99 3rd, bronze medalist(s) 2nd, silver medalist(s) 2nd, silver medalist(s) N/A 1st, gold medalist(s) 4
1999/00 15 10 20 N/A 9 14
2000/01 4 8 12 N/A 23 N/A
2001/02 23 N/A 31 N/A 20 N/A
2002/03 13 N/A 23 N/A 6 N/A
2003/04 8 N/A 8 N/A 10 N/A
2004/05 16 N/A 11 N/A 26 N/A
2005/06 21 N/A 9 N/A 15 N/A
2006/07 26 N/A 34 N/A 20 N/A
2007/08 34 N/A 34 N/A 30 N/A
2008/09 15 20 13 N/A 13 N/A
2009/10 17 – 11 N/A 8 N/A
2010/11 25 31 31 N/A N/A N/A
2011/12 51 45 33 N/A N/A N/A
2012/13 24 17 42 N/A N/A N/A
2013/14 5 2nd, silver medalist(s) 5 N/A N/A N/A
2014/15 6 4 4 N/A N/A N/A
2015/16 8 5 7 N/A N/A N/A
2016/17 20 N/A N/A

Wins

No. Season Date Location Hill Size
1 1991/92 22 March 1992 Czechoslovakia Harrachov Čerťák K180 FH
2 1992/93 1 January 1993 Germany Garmisch-Partenkirchen Große Olympiaschanze K107 LH
3 23 January 1993 Italy Predazzo Trampolino dal Ben K120 LH
4 6 March 1993 Finland Lahti Salpausselkä K90 NH
5 1993/94 9 January 1994 Austria Murau Hans-Walland Großschanze K120 LH
6 1997/98 22 March 1998 Slovenia Planica Bloudkova velikanka K120 LH
7 1998/99 3 January 1999 Austria Innsbruck Bergiselschanze K120 LH
8 29 January 1999 Germany Willingen Mühlenkopfschanze K120 LH
9 31 January 1999 Germany Willingen Mühlenkopfschanze K120 LH
10 9 March 1999 Norway Trondheim Granåsen K120 (night) LH
11 14 March 1999 Norway Oslo Holmenkollbakken K115 LH
12 21 March 1999 Slovenia Planica Velikanka bratov Gorišek K185 FH
13 2000/01 1 January 2001 Germany Garmisch-Partenkirchen Große Olympiaschanze K115 LH
14 2002/03 9 February 2003 Germany Willingen Mühlenkopfschanze K120 LH
15 2003/04 28 February 2004 United States Park City Utah Olympic Park K120 LH
16 2013/14 11 January 2014 Austria Tauplitz/Bad Mitterndorf Kulm HS200 FH
17 2014/15 29 November 2014 Finland Kuusamo Rukatunturi HS142 LH

Individual starts (505)

Three times on the list but don't count because he did not start at: Bischofshofen 1997, Ga-Pa 1998 and Lahti 2014.

Season 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Points
1988/89 0
– – – – 31 26 – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
1989/90 43
27 18 9 7 20 40 26 15 16 30 – – – 18 26 51 7 24 7 10 14 28 50 22 68
1990/91 0
47 39 53 51 61 36 47 57 q q 18 – – – – – – – – – – –
1991/92 115
11 13 11 6 – – – – – – – – – 3 6 2 6 60 13 1 7
1992/93 172
34 7 21 14 43 3 1 3 2 1 – – 1 4 4 4 27
1993/94 562
15 5 31 12 27 14 13 3 2 1 – – 6 5 3 17 19 45 10
1995/96 132
– – – – – – – 37 14 12 9 17 – – 52 35 – – 21 22 17 18 28 q – – – –
1996/97 351
15 25 7 23 6 18 31 20 12 DNS – – 16 21 2 18 15 33 11 41 27 27 12 20 q
1997/98 720
3 7 7 17 10 4 7 6 DNS 25 30 – – – – – 37 14 3 5 17 8 16 2 30 4 1
1998/99 1598
5 37 5 6 3 12 13 2 3 3 1 4 3 3 5 11 6 12 1 1 – 3 5 1 4 1 4 3 1
1999/00 436
5 13 5 17 16 34 14 47 18 13 17 44 11 8 29 11 31 22 30 – 42 8 18 7 17 5
2000/01 728
48 2 18 2 1 3 44 7 11 18 4 10 4 7 4 18 6 8 44 19 18
2001/02 219
19 23 25 21 7 25 30 – – q 37 28 20 15 – – 8 3 – 22 25 28
2002/03 548
12 22 11 9 19 17 20 17 21 22 13 39 – – – 9 10 22 10 10 12 1 5 6 16 36 7
2003/04 631
12 18 21 6 10 5 6 6 11 – – – – 49 8 2 3 15 1 9 11 16 16
2004/05 416
6 6 14 9 11 5 10 25 15 15 20 10 13 34 22 – – – – 9 7 18 25 29 27 31 39 31
2005/06 249
q 41 32 21 38 39 19 13 12 9 11 24 4 – – 21 19 19 13 14 31 28
2006/07 182
50 – – – – q 3 28 42 – – – – 33 15 17 15 19 36 9 12 37 28 24
2007/08 122
11 15 17 26 11 – – q 25 39 30 q q – – – 25 42 25 19 34 27 35 35 27 q 32
2008/09 409
47 33 q 29 6 q 19 17 16 6 19 – – – – 9 12 – 3 21 – 34 5 9 6 28 7
2009/10 344
10 49 30 13 15 35 13 13 9 19 – – 6 2 – – – – – 11 16 9 19
2010/11 197
24 16 27 29 35 29 46 22 21 22 – – – 11 14 27 25 5 25 DQ 18 25 20 25 q –
2011/12 45
– – – – – – – 35 29 36 56 – – – – 15 33 42 q 32 29 24 24 23 28 –
2012/13 328
19 10 7 20 30 25 24 q 41 34 23 – – 11 19 – – – – – – 9 19 12 12 4 4
2013/14 1062
27 5 10 4 6 3 – – 6 6 7 5 1 3 – – 3 6 4 4 3 DNS 9 8 3 4 6 5
2014/15 1137
6 3 1 11 17 – – – – 8 8 3 2 5 8 9 6 8 9 9 5 11 3 5 5 13 10 4 2 5 8
2015/16 909
5 30 17 – – 3 10 5 12 7 9 – – 4 3 3 3 7 10 7 16 14 10 7 3 12 6 7 4
2016/17 25
18 24 26

Records

World Cup

Recorder at Achievement
team starts 58
individual starts 505
total starts 563
Top 30 results 431
winning points individual 416
most seasons performing 28
most seasons winning points 26
performing in 4 different decades 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s
the longest career 27 years, 353 days
period between 1st and last victory 22 years, 252 days
oldest winner 42 years, 176 days
oldest jumper on individual podium 43 years, 272 days
oldest jumper on team podium 43 years, 245 days
oldest jumper in Top 10 43 years, 288 days
oldest jumper performing in world cup 44 years, 181 days

Nordic world championships

Recorder at Achievement
oldest team medalist 42 years, 261 days
most appearances 12
team starts 14
individual starts 23
total starts 37

Olympics

Recorder at Achievement
oldest medalist individual 41 years, 254 days
oldest team medalist 41 years, 256 days
most appearances 7
team starts 5
individual starts 13
total starts 18

Ski flying world championships

Recorder at Achievement
most appearances 10
individual starts 10
the oldest competitor 43 years, 224 days

World record

Recorder at Achievement
veterans over 35+ 240.5 m (789 ft)
veterans over 40+ 240.5 m (789 ft)

Personal life

He was born into a very poor family. He was raised only by his mother to whom he was very attached and has two sisters. In 1997 his mother died in a tragic house fire. He has no particular other hobbies in his life except ski jumping which is his whole life. He says he wants to ski jump until the age of 50 because he has no other skills and no idea what to do if he ends his career. On 30 January 2016 his wife gave birth to their daughter named Rino.[4][5]

In popular culture

In 2014 a Finnish garage punk band Van Dammes released a tribute single called Mr. Noriaki Kasai.[6] Another tribute song was released in January 2015 by Jalle S: "Song for Noriaki Kasai".[7] Also Polish rapper Koldi has written a song about him. "Noriaki Kasai".[8]

See also

References

External links

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