Mika Antero Laitinen (born March 3, 1973 in Kuopio ) is a former Finnish ski jumper . He started for the club in his hometown, the Puijon Hiihtoseura .
Laitinen began ski jumping at the age of seven and made his debut in the Ski Jumping World Cup in March 1990 in Lahti ; he got his first World Cup points in Predazzo the following winter. Laitinen found it very difficult to switch from the parallel jump technique to the emerging V-style at this time . His characteristic jumping style appeared quite wooden in the following years, which is why he was often given low grades by the judges. However, Laitinen compensated for the lack of elegance with his enormous jumping ability - he was a "power jumper" and therefore had an advantage especially on smaller jumps.
In 1992, at the last moment, he was called up for the Albertville Winter Olympics . He won gold with the team led by Toni Nieminen . In the individual competitions she was nineteenth on the large hill and fifth on the normal hill. In the following two years he struggled with a form weakness and was rarely seen in the World Cup. He was not nominated for the 1994 Winter Olympics. In the winter of 1994/95 he found his form again and became world champion with the Finnish team at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Thunder Bay and won the bronze medal in individual jumping on the normal hill; on the large hill he was thirteenth.
Laitina's best season was the winter of 1995/96. He won five of the first nine World Cup competitions and at the turn of the year, after his victory in Oberstdorf, led the overall ranking of the Four Hills Tournament as well as the World Cup ranking by a wide margin. However, during training for the New Year's competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, he fell badly and broke seven ribs and his collarbone. He therefore had to sit out for many weeks, but ultimately finished sixth in the overall World Cup standings. Laitinen did not recover from this fall. Although he occasionally achieved respectable successes in the following years, all too often he did not make the second round. He was no longer able to win. Despite persistent form weakness, he was still a member of the Finnish team in the following years. With her he won gold again at the 1997 World Cup in Trondheim . At the 1998 Winter Olympics , the team only achieved fifth place, and fourth at the 1999 World Cup .
Finland
Lillehammer
Planica
Predazzo
Oberhof
Austria
