Masahiko Harada
| Masahiko Harada 原田 雅彦 |
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| Country |
 Japan
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| Full name | 原田 雅彦 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
9 May 1968 Kamikawa, Japan |
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| Height | 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal best | 197 m (646 ft) Planica, 18-21 March 1999 |
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| World Cup career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Seasons |
1987–1988 1990–2003 |
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| Individual wins | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team wins | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Indiv. podiums | 21 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team podiums | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Yellow bibs | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Indiv. starts | 211 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team starts | 13 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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| Updated on 10 February 2016. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Masahiko Harada (原田 雅彦 Harada Masahiko?) (born 9 May 1968) is a Japanese former ski jumper. He is best remembered for a meltdown at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, which cost the Japanese national team a victory, and his subsequent redemption at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano; the latter of which led to him being affectionately called "Happy Harada".
At the 1994 games, the Japanese team had a nearly insurmountable lead heading into the last jump of the large hill. Harada, the team's anchor, had jumped 122 meters in his previous attempt and needed only 105 meters in his final jump to clinch the gold for Japan. His jump was just shy of 97,5 meters and dropped Japan to second, with the gold going to the German team.
Four years later Harada would again have his chance to deliver his team a gold, this time in his home country. His first jump of 79.5 meters knocked his team from first to fourth and brought back memories of Lillehammer. Then, on his second attempt he delivered an Olympic-record tying 137 meter jump. His teammate Kazuyoshi Funaki would then close out the event with a 125 meter jump, clinching the first Olympic ski jumping gold medal for Japan since the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo.
Along with the team gold, Harada also captured bronze in Nagano in the individual large hill after a 136 meter final jump that pushed up him from sixth to third.
Harada has competed in five of the Olympic Games. In addition to the Lillehammer and Nagano games, he competed in Albertville in 1992, Salt Lake City in 2002 and Turin in 2006.
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