Normal Hill, Individual, Men

Toni Innauer, the young Austrian who was close to winning the Large Hill competition on his home ground in 1976 when aged only 17, was hampered by injuries in the coming years, even if he did win a silver medal in the 1977 World Ski Flying Championships. His 176.0 m jump from Oberstdorf in 1976 was still the world record, not to be beaten until 1981. In 1980 he was fit for fight again, and in the Normal Hill in Lake Placid he was in a class of his own, winning with the largest margin in the history of Olympic ski jumping. In the first round he jumped 89.0 m, and had a lead of 2.7 points ahead of the 20-year Japanese Hirokazu Yagi, with the Finn Pentti Kokkonen in third position. In the second round, the 18-year old East German Manfed Deckert, lying in seventh position after the first round, made an excellent jump of 88.0 m and was briefly in the lead after two jumps. But Innauer answered immediately with a perfect jump of 90.0 m, taking over the lead by 17.1 points. Yagi could not copy his first jump of 87.0 m, landing an ordinary 83.5 m jump and was equal second place with Deckert. Several of the late starters tried to challenge Deckert and Yagi for the medals. First was the young Austrian Hubert Neuper, lying in 14th place after the first round, who made the second best jump of the second round, 88.5 m, and advanced to a sixth place overall. The Japanese Masahiro Akimoto come very close, but ended 0.7 points behind Deckert and Yagi. The last challenger was Kokkonen, in the bronze medal position after the first round, but he made an ordinary jump and ended in fifth position.