Large Hill, Team, Men

Just as the two nations had fought for the title at the 2001 World Championships, the 2002 Olympic championship developed into a head-to-head between the teams from Germany and Finland. The two teams exchanged the lead throughout round one but Germany held the half way lead and held on to a single figure points margin for the bulk of the second round. With Germany’s last man Martin Schmitt to jump the calculations were that he would need a distance of around 124 m to win the gold for his team but he landed a half metre short at 123.5 m and everything would depend on his style marks. Eventually the scoreboard flashed up that Germany had clinched the title by the minimum possible margin of one tenth of a point. If any of the eight German jumps had been a half metre shorter or any style mark had been 0.5 lower Finland would have been champions. The bronze medal was surprisingly won by Slovenia, their first in Olympic ski jumping.