Thu, Jan 21, 2010 page19

• FEATURE : Finnish sports icon’s dark side emerges

  CRASHING TO EARTH The winner of four Olympic gold medals may be charged with aggravated assault after allegedly attempting to stab his wife on Christmas Day

  • AP
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  Matti Nykanen soared like an eagle during the 1980s, winning more medals than any other ski jumper. He was dubbed “The Eagle of the Hills,” an icon in a country where ski jumping is a great source of pride.

  Now he is 46 and in retirement, having taken a mighty fall.

  He is suspected of attempting to stab and strangle his wife, Mervi Tapola-Nykanen, on Christmas Day in their home. He was released after charges of attempted manslaughter were dropped, but police say he might be charged with aggravated assault.

  He has been there before.

  In 2006, Nykanen was sentenced to four months in prison for assaulting his wife. The attack occurred three days after he was released from jail after serving 13 months of a 26-month sentence for a stabbing offence in 2004.

  Nykanen, always scant with words, has refused to comment on his arrests, violent behavior and drinking bouts.

  The latest episode surprised many because the alcohol-fueled, volatile years of Nykanen’s relationship with his wife appeared over.

  The couple met in 1999 and married in 2001. They divorced two years later and remarried in 2004 — on top of a ski jumping ramp.

  From the beginning, they quarreled and brawled, but always came back together.

  For about three years before last Christmas, there had been no arrests or fights. The couple was seen partying amicably together at summer celebrations last year.

  Nykanen seemed to have settled down, announcing a new TV show and a cookbook.

  He did so much as a ski jumper, winning four gold medals at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics. He was a four-time World Cup overall champion and winner of 46 international events — still a record.

  Nykanen won his first World Cup gold medal at 19. He was voted Finland’s sportsman of the year in 1985 and 1988. He is the only Finn featured on a postage stamp during his lifetime, apart from former presidents.

  He won a total of 19 medals in the Olympics and world championships for ski jumping and ski flying — a record he shares with fellow Finn Janne Ahonen.

  Several biographies have been written about Nykanen, and Finnish filmmakers produced a movie — Matti — that drew record audiences after its release in 2006. An estimated 460,000 Finns, in a nation of 5.3 million, have seen the film.

  Nykanen’s breathtaking success during his prime drew wide attention. Then came the escapades of dancing with strippers and drunken singing performances in nightclubs. As the darker side of his life took over, he was hounded by the media that once covered him with such enthusiasm.

  The tabloids have carried extensive reports of his drinking sprees. They have detailed the clashes with his wife and other attacks, with full-page photographs of the attacker and victims.

  In 2004, Nykanen had been drinking heavily with Aarno Hujanen, a 59-year-old repairman who had been fixing the windows of Nykanen’s cottage. Nykanen stabbed him twice in the back. The victim was released from the hospital after a few days.

  Earlier that year, Nykanen received a four-month suspended sentence for beating and attacking his wife with a knife during a trip to Salzburg, Austria. Last year, Nykanen said he had an affair with a 23-year-old woman. Mervi filed for divorce — for the 14th time.
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