Athlete profile: Samppa Lajunen

Posted: Tue February 3, 1998 at 5:00 PM ET

Athlete notes

Amazingly, Lajunen sky-rocketed from 36th place in the 1996 World Cup standings to finish first in last season's year-end rankings...he does not attribute his success to anything in particular..."There was a big improvement," Lajunen explains, "I jumped better and obviously I skied a lot better, but the main reason was that I was just one year older"...who knows what one more year will do for the young Finn?...however, Lajunen's youth and inexperience still showed through at times last year...most notably when he crossed the finish line in the 17th position -- matching his age - at the World Championships in Trondheim...Lajunen was not that disappointed with his result, "I accomplished what I wanted to last year. My goals were to do the best that I could, and my goals were fulfilled. There was nothing especially that bad about Trondheim," he says...Lajunen will need to raise his expectations if he wants to compete with Japanese combined skiier Kenji Ogiwara, who will be heavily favored in front of the boisterous home fans in Nagano...Lajunen said of the World Champion Ogiwara: "He is such a good competitor. Every Japanese journalist always asks me why Kenji is so good and I never can come up with an answer for them. He is always able to do his best at every big competition"...now 18, Lajunen still has to juggle training with his school work, but during the summer he has more free time on his hands..."I do a lot of training on plastic for jumping, and on wheels for cross-country during the summer"..."The summer championships in Finland showed that we have a really strong team," he says. "I think we have a very good chance to win the team competition. Hannu [Manninen] is just now getting in the top shape of his life and was unbelievable on cross-country skis in the off-season"...other competitors do not have much to say about Lajunen...Manninen says he does not really focus on his compatriot, while all Jari Mantila says is: "So he won the World Cup, he looks in good shape"...in his free time, Lajunen finds time to write, compose and play some music, his main hobby...he plays around both on guitar and drums..."I like to write music sometimes, but never about flying through the air or skiing," he says. "I think these two things are two different worlds"...if music is an escape for Lajunen, he will not be able to escape the fact that he is one of the favorites for Nagano...will the pressure get to him?..."These are going to be my first Olympics, but that does not matter. I will be ready"...after all, Lajunen has been preparing ever since his dad gave him skis when he was one year old...then, when he was five or six, he started jumping with his cross-country skis over little jumps he would make himself from the deep snow... "My dad was the main reason I started with my sport, and he still comes to almost all my competitions," he says...hopefully, his father brings along his beeper, because Samppa's dad is a doctor, while his mother works around the house...his hometown has a definite Olympic ski jumping tradition, with Finnish great Matti Nykänen (MAH-tee noo-KUH-nen) ('88 triple Gold)and Olympian Jani Soininen (SOY-ni-nen) stemming from Jyväskylä..."Of course, I looked up to Matti. Everyone did"...Lajunen speaks somewhat broken English...