It could be a comeback that will go down in sports history. This weekend, Noriaki Kasai will compete as part of the Japanese ski jumping team at the World Cup in Sapporo – at the age of 51. The eternal Kasai has long been a legend, but if he were to qualify for the jumping after our time on Friday morning (starting at 8 a.m.), that would be extraordinary, or better: a small sensation.
Last year he tried to get back to the top, but he lacked the necessary form and failed in the preliminary rounds. This time the chances are much better for the 1992 ski flying world champion. He would be the first jumper over 50 to take part in a World Cup. “It will be such a pressure for me, as if it were about victory. But I want to withstand the pressure,” says Kasai: “Because everyone is waiting for me, and I don’t want to disappoint them.”
A quick look back: In 1988, the then sixteen-year-old Japanese made his debut in the World Cup, also in Sapporo. It was the time when ski jumping was going through a huge development spurt. The great Finn Matti Nykänen won his penultimate World Cup victory on the third weekend in December in Japan in the old parallel style, one day later the Swede Jan Böklov won in the V style, which he played a key role in establishing. Of the greats of that time, only the GDR jumpers around Jens Weißflog were missing.
In the present, these names are history. Matti Nykänen, next to Weißflog the greatest ski jumper of all time, succumbed to alcohol at the age of 55, Böklov is hardly known today and Weißflog runs a hotel in the Ore Mountains, although at 59 he is a little older than Kasai.
With hard work, the Japanese fought his way back into the Japanese ski jumping elite. In January he came ninth in the Continental Cup, the second highest international competition category, in Sapporo, beating German champion Martin Hamann. Last week he won the national TVH Cup ahead of Keiichi Sato, who finished 14th at the Four Hills Tournament three years ago. “I worked so hard every day on my endurance, my mental health and my weight,” says Kasai: “And it’s finally paying off again.”
Kasai has no problem with his role as a pterodactyl, which is often laughed at. He still burns with ambition and believes in himself. Many people had already written him off. He experienced his last victory in 2014 at the age of 42, his last podium in 2017 at the age of 44 and his 569th and last World Cup to date took place in 2020 at the age of 47. They were all age records.
But then his body actually seemed to be too old for the extreme demands at the highest level. My knees no longer wanted to cooperate and my fitness dwindled. But quitting completely wasn’t an option for Kasai. He worked harder than ever and is now able to fly again, against all odds. During this time he worked as team leader of the factory team of the Tsuchiya Group, which also included tour winner Ryoyu Kobayashi until 2023. Now the two are reunited in a team, which is also a punch line of this extraordinary story.
And what is his secret? Does Nori, as he is called, have a magic elixir or, like Dorian Gray, sell his soul and stop aging? “I’m just still doing my best. That’s all,” says Kasai. And smiles.
Sources: “kicker”, “Sport Bild”
