Ari-Pekka Nikkola (born May 16, 1969 in Kuopio ) is a former Finnish ski jumper and today's ski jumping coach. He started for the club in his hometown, the Puijon Hiihtoseura .
His first appearance in the Ski Jumping World Cup was on December 30, 1985 at the Four Hills Tournament in Oberstdorf . He made his breakthrough in the following season. In Asiago , Italy he was first junior world champion, on February 28, 1987 he won a world cup competition for the first time. He won a total of nine world cup competitions in his career. Only after Matti Nykänens retired he was able to step out of his shadow; in the 1989/90 season he also won the overall World Cup for the only time , in the 1995/96 season he was just second behind Andreas Goldberger . His individual successes also include a silver medal on the normal hill at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti in 1989 and a bronze medal at the 1991 World Championships .
Nikkola won most of the medals with the Finnish team. In 1987, 1989, 1995 and 1997 he was world champion with the team, and vice world champion in 1991. At the Winter Olympics, he won the gold medal with the team in Calgary in 1988 and Albertville in 1992 . After the disappointing 1997/98 season, he ended his career. In April 2006 he became the coach of the B-team in Slovenia . In January 2007, he replaced Vasja Bajc as coach of the Slovenian senior squad, but was dismissed from this position after the 2007/08 season. He is currently part of the Finnish Ski Association's coaching team.
The songwriters Christoph and Lollo sing in their song "Ari-Pekka Nikkola" about the former ski jumper.
In the Finnish comedy series "Ratkaisijat - the cows" by Studio Julmahuvi, A.-P. Nikkola wanted by the main characters Dieter and Berner. The series is a parody of the German television thriller " Der Alte ". The Finnish actors speak very broken German and are subtitled in Finnish, which gives the series a special charm, especially for German-speaking viewers. The parody is u. a. seen on YouTube .
Finland
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innsbruck
Engelberg
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Germany