Large Hill, Individual, Men

The ski jumping event was met with high interest, and an attendance of 8000 was gathered to watch the 38 brave ski jumpers starting in the competition, among them the first ever Asian ski jumper showing up internationally, the Japanese Motohiko Ban. Ice in the run-in made the conditions difficult, and in the first round the jumpers were given reduced speed. The highly favored Norwegian team consisted of four jumping specialists, led by the defending Olympic Champion Jacob Tullin Thams, who also was the winner of the World Championships in 1926. After the first round, it looked like a new triumph for the Norwegians, with Alf Andersen leading with the longest jump of the round of 60 m, ahead of Sigmund Ruud and Thams. The fourth Norwegian, Hans Kleppen, was out of contention after a fall. The most dangerous threat to the Norwegians was the winner of the Nordic Combined jumping event, Rudolf Burkert, and the home favorite, Gérard Vuilleumier.

In the break between the two rounds, the Middle Europeans, led by the Swiss jumpers Vuilleumier and Bruno Trojani, requested top speed for the in-run, but the Scandinavians and US jumpers protested and argued that on the icy and fast snow this would be too dangerous. The quarrel lasted for 40 minutes, and in the end the Middle Europeans got what they wanted. The two leading Norwegians, Andersen and Ruud, kept their head cool and left the tower in standing position to avoid full speed. They produced the two longest standing jumps of the competition, with 64.0 and 62.5 m. Defending champion Thams, however, was furious. Instead of taking a safe jump to win a medal, he was provoked by the Swiss jumpers taunting him about his cowardice, and gave full speed to produce a magnificent jump of 73.0 m without a clean landing. Ironically, both Vuilleumier and Trojani became victims of the high speed and fell after jumps of 62.0 and 63.0 metres.

The competition ended with gold and silver for Norway. Alf Andersen became Olympic Champion, and Sigmund Ruud, the eldest of the famous Ruud brothers from Kongsberg, was second. Rudolf Burkert won the bronze medal, the first ever medal for his country in the Winter Olympics. The 20-year old Kleppen also fell on his second jump, but this skier from Telemark reached the age of 100 on 16 March 2007.