He had his first World Cup appearance on January 15, 1989 in Harrachov . After a few years in midfield, he celebrated his first major success at the 1992 Winter Olympics : he won the bronze medal with the Czechoslovak team. With a joint Czech and Slovak team, Sakala was runner-up in Falun at the Nordic World Ski Championships in 1993 . He also won silver on the large hill and bronze on the normal hill.
At the Four Hills Tournament 1992/93 he was able to take third place in the overall ranking after a second place in the third competition on the Bergiselschanze in Innsbruck . He celebrated his first World Cup victory on January 30, 1993 on the Kulm ski jumping hill in Tauplitz / Bad Mitterndorf , and won again the next day at the same location. His only victory on a regular ski jump was on January 16, 1994 in his native Liberec . With his fourth and final World Cup victory on March 20, 1994, he also became world ski flying champion. In the overall World Cup ranking he was second in 1992/93 and fourth in the following season.
In the following years Sakala could not build on these successes, and he rarely reached the second round; however, he made it into the top ten more often on flying hills. In 2002 he ended his career.
In September 2008 Sakala took over the post which had become vacant after the dismissal of Pavel Mikeska as head coach of the Czech national ski jumping team. His son Filip is also a ski jumper.
Czechoslovakia Czech Republic
Bad Mitterndorf
Planica
