Bjørn Wirkola

Bjørn Wirkola
Full name	Bjørn Tore Wirkola
nation	Norway
birthday	4th August 1943
place of birth	Alta ,  Norway
Career
society	Alta IF
status	resigned
End of career	1972
Medal table
World Cup medals 2 × 0 × 0 × National medals 8 × 4 × 2 ×
Nordic World Ski Championships gold 1966 Oslo Normal hill gold 1966 Oslo Large hill  Norwegian championships gold 1965 Bærum Normal hill silver 1965 Bærum Large hill gold 1966 Rena Normal hill gold 1966 Rena Large hill gold 1967 Voss Large hill gold 1968 Ørskog Normal hill gold 1968 Bærum Large hill silver 1969 Raufoss Normal hill silver 1969 Raufoss Large hill bronze 1970 Trondheim Normal hill gold 1970 Meldal Large hill gold 1971 Bærum Large hill silver 1972 Trondheim Normal hill bronze 1972 Odnes Large hill
Ski jumping world cup / A class jumping
Four Hills Tournament	1. ( 1966/67 , 1967/68 , 1968/69 )

Bjørn Tore Wirkola (born August 4, 1943 in Alta , Norway ) is a former Norwegian Nordic combined skier , ski jumper and soccer player .

Career

Wirkola began his career as a Nordic combined athlete, starting in singles at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck . He reached the 11th place. In the ski jumping competition he reached 16th place.

As a ski jumper, Wirkola first won the gold medal on the normal hill and the silver medal on the large hill at the Norwegian Championships in Bærum in 1965 . A year later he was able to win the title on both the large and normal hill in Rena. At the Nordic World Ski Championships in Oslo in 1966 , he won two gold medals shortly afterwards. Between 1967 and 1969 he won the Four Hills Tournament three times in a row , in total he won ten competitions on this tour. On March 19, 1965, Wirkola flew a new world record in ski flying with 144 m on the Kulm , but fell so that it did not apply; but afterwards he improved it three times: 1966 on the hill of Vikersund (146 m), 1969 in Planica with 156 m and then 160 m. At the 1968 Olympic Games in Grenoble , he finished fourth in jumping from the 70 m hill. In the same year he was honored with the Holmenkollen Medal for his successes .

At the world record on March 13, 1966 in Vikersund, he had reached 143 m in the first jump; for the 146 m jump he received four times the grade 19.5 and one time the 20.0; Experts described this jump as "the most beautiful that there has ever been".

After completing his skiing career, Wirkola played football. As a striker from Rosenborg Trondheim , he won the Norwegian double in 1971. In the same year he was awarded the Egebergs Ærespris , the highest Norwegian award for athletes. In 1967 he had already won the election for Norway's Sportsman of the Year .

More Achievements

• Victory 11th championship in Lake Placid on January 9, 1966
• 2nd place in Lahti on March 6, 1966
• Victory on October 1st, 1967 in the mat jumping in Meinerzhagen ahead of Günther Göllner and Reinhold Bachler .

successes

Hill records

place	country	Expanse	set up on	Record up
Bischofshofen	Austria	103.0 m ( HS : 140 m)	January 5, 1965	January 6, 1966
Vikersund	Norway	145.0 m ( HS : 225 m)	1966	1966
Vikersund	Norway	146.0 m ( HS : 225 m)	1966	March 12, 1967
Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Germany	92.5 m ( HS : 140 m)	1st January 1968	1st January 1969
Oslo	Norway	91.0 m ( HS : 134 m)	1968	1969
Planica	Slovenia	156.0 m ( HS : 225 m)	March 21, 1969	March 22, 1969
Planica	Slovenia	160.0 m ( HS : 225 m)	March 22, 1969	March 22, 1969
innsbruck	Austria	98.0 m ( HS : 130 m)	4th January 1970	4th January 1970

Web links

• Bjørn Wirkola in the database of the International Ski Federation (English)
• Bjørn Wirkola in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ World record distance , but fell . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna March 20, 1965, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
2. ↑ Bjørn Wirkola 70 år ( Norwegian ) Skihistorie.no. Retrieved June 2, 2020.
3. ↑ World record jump from Wirkola . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna March 15, 1966, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
4. ↑ Lake Placid: Wirkola . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 11, 1966, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
5. ↑ Bachler in Lahti excellent . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna March 8, 1966, p. 13 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
6. ^ "Preiml sixth in mat jumping in Germany" in "Welt und Sport" (Monday edition of the "Volkszeitung Kärnten") of October 2, 1967, page 2, POS .: column 4, third from last article