Vinko Bogataj

Vinko Bogataj
Country	Yugoslavia
Born	1948 (age 68–69) Brezovica, Radovljica, Yugoslavia (now Slovenia)

Vinko Bogataj (Slovenian: /ˈʋiːŋko bɔɡaˈtaj/; born 1948) is a Slovenian former ski jumper. Footage of him crashing featured on ABC's Wide World of Sports representing the Agony of Defeat.

Bogataj competed as a Yugoslav entrant at the ski flying event in Oberstdorf, West Germany (now Germany) on 7 March 1970. A light snow had begun falling at the start of the competition, and by the time Bogataj was ready for his third jump on the Heini Klopfer hill, the snow had become quite heavy. Midway down the inrun for his jump, Bogataj realised that the conditions had made the ramp too fast. He attempted to lower his center of gravity and stop his jump, but instead lost his balance completely and rocketed out of control off the end of the inrun, tumbling and flipping wildly, and crashing through a light retaining fence near a crowd of spectators before coming to a halt. Bogataj suffered a mild concussion and a broken ankle.

A film crew from Wide World of Sports was recording the event in which Bogataj crashed. The show featured an opening narration by host Jim McKay over a montage of sports clips, and co-ordinating producer Dennis Lewin inserted the footage of the crash to coincide with the words "...and the agony of defeat." Throughout the show's long history, various images were used for the other parts of the narration, including for "The thrill of victory...", which directly preceded the above phrase and was often accompanied by images of the celebrating team at the most recent Super Bowl or World Cup. But after that point, the "agony of defeat" was always illustrated by Bogataj's failed jump. Later on, other clips were added to the "agony of defeat", but Bogataj's crash was always featured and always the first played.

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