Flying Pole

Malsyz remains strong contender for Olympic gold

Adam Malsyz won the 2001 World Cup championship. Zoom/Allsport

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Poland has been waiting for a podium spot at the Winter Olympics since 1972, a long wait for a nation with a rich tradition in winter sports.

The country's last medal came at the Sapporo Games in Japan, when ski jumper Wojciech Fortuna took the gold.

Another ski jumper, Adam Malysz, is now expected to snap the 30-year medal drought.

Malysz, nicknamed the "Flying Pole," won the World Cup championship last season, capturing the prestigious Four Hills tournament in the process.

The 24-year-old also won six of nine early World Cup competitions this season, but then came a setback, just as the countdown to the Salt Lake City Games picked up.

Coming into the Four Hills, the biggest ski jumping competition outside the Olympics, Malysz was the overwhelming favorite to retain the title.

But he was overshadowed by Germany's Sven Hannawald, who not only won the coveted title but also became the first ski jumper in history to sweep all four legs of the series.

Malysz, lacking speed and thrust, finished a disappointing fourth and went back to the southern Polish resort of Zakopane to spend three days working to correct his takeoff technique.

His performance at the Four Hills worried his fans, who kept calling local radio stations to comfort Malysz. Even president Aleksander Kwasniewski, once a sports minister in the former communist government in the 1980s and a great sports fan, appealed to Poles for moral support for their national hero.

"He's a wonderful sportsman and we are all sure that things will go well at the Olympics," Kwasniewski said.

Poland, desperate to celebrate success at the games after more than three decades, pins its hopes on the diminutive shoulders of their ski jumping star, putting tremendous pressure on Malysz.

"Adam showed that the moments of weakness are left behind," coach Apoloniusz Tajner said after Malysz took six training jumps in Zakopane. Hundreds of fans turned up to watch the practice.

"He is in a good frame of mind and there is no fear he will fail at the Olympics," Tajner said.

Malysz himself said the practice helped him restore his confidence.

"The practice gave me the belief that everything is all right with me. The last few jumps in Zakopane were some of my best ones," he said.

Hopes were already high before the 1998 Nagano Olympics after Malysz had seven podium finishes in 1996-1997. Then he went into a three-year slump and considered quitting and becoming a roofer, a profession he learned at school in his hometown of Wisla in southern Poland.

But his wife Izabela persuaded him to stick to jumping.

Malysz learned to control his nerves and muscles, perfected his takeoff technique and learned to fly. Last year he became the first Pole to win the Four Hills. He then took silver and gold at the World Championships and captured the World Cup title.

Although the team now travels to competitions aboard a private jet supplied by a sponsor, Malysz remains personally modest, a quality much adored in his homeland.

 

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