Normal Hill, Individual, Men

A record number of 58 ski jumpers from 17 countries were entered for the Olympic ski jumping competitions in 1968. The Norwegian Bjørn Wirkola had won both ski jumping competitions at the World Championships in Oslo 1966 and had dominated the international scene in the following years, winning at Holmenkollen in 1966 and 1967 and the 1967 and 1968 Four Hills Tournament.

In the Normal Hill competition, the young Soviet jumper Anatoly Zheglanov took an early lead with an excellent jump of 79.5 m. The Austrian Baldur Preiml, starting 28th, produced the longest jump of the day with 80.0 m and was still in the lead until one of the last starters, Czechoslovakian Jiří Raška jumped 79.0 m with superb style and bettered Preindl’s total points. The 21-year old Finn Topi Mattila was lying third after the first round, beating Zheglanov’s point score with a 78.0 m jump. Wirkola was a disappointing sixth.

In the second round the jumps were considerably shorter. Austrian Reinhold Bachler produced the longest jump of the round with 76.0 m and advanced from eighth to the silver medal position. Raška had a more mediocre jump of 72.5 m but claimed the first ever gold medal in ski jumping for Czechoslovakia. Preindl was able to hold off Wirkola in the battle for the bronze medal. Defending Champion Veikko Kankkonen was a distant 17th, seemingly totally out of form.