Lasse Ottesen competed internationally from 1991-2002, appearing at the 1992, 1994, and 1998 Winter Olympics. Ottesen’s big Olympic moment came in 1994 at Lillehammer when he won a silver medal on the normal hill. He won a silver medal in the team event at the 1992 World Junior Championships, but never made the podium at the World Championships, his best finish a fourth on large hill in 1995. Ottesen never managed to win an individual World Cup event, but had one win in team competition, and nine podium places in World Cup individual jumping events, with three silvers in ski jumping, and six bronzes, four in ski jumping and two in ski flying.
Ottesen’s best finish in the Four Hills Tournament was eighth in the 1999/2000 competition. At the 1993/94 Four Hills he helped protect the lead of his countryman Espen Bredesen. With Bredesen leading, Ottesen sat on the hill a very long time, holding up so that the next jumper, Jens Weißflog, faced worsening wind conditions and was unable to better Bredesen, and he complained about Ottesen’s tactics.
Ottesen retired after not making the 2002 Norwegian team for the Winter Olympics and became a ski jumping coach. He was later USA head jumping coach for the Nordic combined skiiers, leading them to their first ever World Cup victories and Olympic medals in the late 2000s. He then joined the FIS working as Race Director for Nordic Combined.
Norway