Sven Hannawald

In 1998, Hannawald won a silver medal at the 1998 Ski Flying World Championships in Oberstdorf as well as a silver medal at the Olympic Games in Nagano in the team large hill event. In the 1998/99 season, he finished in fifth place overall in World Cup Ski Jumping. At the world championships in Ramsau, he won a silver medal in the individual large hill behind Martin Schmitt, and a gold medal in the team large hill event. In 2000, Hannawald won the Ski-flying World Championships in Vikersund. He also won the ski jumping competition at the Holmenkollen ski festival that year. In the 2000/01 season, Hannawald won gold in the team large hill event and bronze in the team normal hill event at the world championships in Lahti. The following winter of 2001/02 was the most successful of his career: Hannawald ended second in the World Cup, winning all four Individual jumping titles at the Four Hills Tournament, the first to do so. He successfully defended his title of Ski Flying World Champion. At the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, he won gold in the team large hill and silver in the individual normal hill, and was even nominated for Sportsman of the Year in Germany. Despite all of his successes, however, Hannawald could not top Adam Malysz in the overall World Cup ranking. In the 2002/03 season, Hannawald finished again second in the world rankings and managed to set another highlight of his career: at the Worldcup competition in Willingen, Germany, he became the third…

Hannawald was born in Erlabrunn and grew up in the nearby town of Johanngeorgenstadt by SC Dynamo Johanngeorgenstadt in the Ore Mountains. At age twelve, he was sent to a special school for young athletes in Klingenthal (SG Dynamo Klingenthal), also in Saxony. In 1991 his family moved to Jettingen-Scheppach near Ulm where he transferred to the Furtwangen Ski Boarding School, where he completed an apprenticeship in Communication Electronics.