Matti Hautamäki

Matti Hautamäki
Hautamäki in 2011
Country	Finland
Full name	Matti Antero Hautamäki
Born	(1981-07-14) 14 July 1981 (age 35) Oulu, Finland
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 10 in)
Personal best	235.5 m (773 ft) Planica, 20 Mar 2005
World Cup career
Seasons	1998–2012
Individual wins	16
Team wins	7
Indiv. podiums	38
Team podiums	24
Yellow bibs	2
Indiv. starts	289
Team starts	37
Nordic titles	2 (2002, 2005)
Medal record Men's ski jumping Olympic Games 2002 Salt Lake City Team LH 2006 Turin Individual NH 2006 Turin Team LH 2002 Salt Lake City Individual LH FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2003 Val di Fiemme Team LH 2001 Lahti Team NH 2003 Val di Fiemme Individual LH 2005 Oberstdorf Team LH Men's ski flying FIS Ski Flying World Championships 2004 Planica Team 2006 Tauplitz Team 2008 Oberstdorf Team 2002 Harrachov Individual 2010 Planica Team
Updated on 10 February 2016.

Matti Antero Hautamäki (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈmɑtːi ˈɑntero ˈhɑutɑmæki]; born 14 July 1981) is a Finnish former ski jumper. He is one of Finland's most successful ski jumpers, having won sixteen individual World Cup competitions; multiple medals at the World Championships and Winter Olympics; the Nordic Tournament twice; and four world records in ski flying. Together with Thomas Morgenstern, Hautamäki currently holds the hill record in Harrachov with a distance of 214.5 metres (704 ft), set on 9 March 2002.

Hautamäki started ski jumping at the age of seven near his hometown of Oulu. When his older brother Jussi and friend Lauri Hakola moved to Kuopio, Matti joined them. At first he found it difficult to be independent at the age of sixteen, but he received much help and support from his brother, with whom he was living at the time. The help of his new coach Pekka Niemelä, whom he met at the sports school in Kuopio, also helped him advance quickly. In the same year Matti had his first real successes and won medals at the 1997 and 1999 FIS Junior World Ski Jumping Championships.

At the Four Hills Tournament in 2001/02, Hautamäki finished second, his highest ever place in that tournament. In 2002 and 2005 he won the Nordic Tournament, with a clean sweep of all four events in the latter. It was during the 2004–05 season that he won six individual events in a row, including the pre-Winter Olympics rehearsal in Pragelato, and the first ski flying event in Planica; this matched the record for the most consecutive victories set by countryman Janne Ahonen in the same season. Hautamäki also won the ski jumping event at the 2005 Holmenkollen Ski Festival in Oslo.