Matti Nykänen

Also known as Matti Ensio Nykänen, Matti Ensio Paanala, Matti Paanala

Finnish ski jumper (1963–2019)

OverviewAI-generated

Matti Nykänen was a Finnish ski jumper, politician, singer, and athlete. Born Matti Ensio Nykänen in Jyväskylä on July 17, 1963, he competed in ski jumping at the 1984 Winter Olympics normal hill event. He received the Holmenkollen Medal for his athletic achievements. His personal best jump was 191 meters. He was also known by the nickname Nukes.

In addition to sports, Nykänen was a singer who performed in the pop rock genre and ran for office in the 1995 Finnish parliamentary election. He was convicted of assault. Nykänen resided in Joutseno, where he died on February 4, 2019. He spoke Finnish and had three children.

Synthesized by Vinony from 33 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, TMDb. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Film & TV

Jyväskylä, Finland

Matti Ensio Nykänen (17 July 1963 – 4 February 2019) was a Finnish ski jumper who competed from 1981 to 1991. Widely considered to be the greatest male ski jumper of all time, he won five Winter Olympic medals (four gold), nine World Championships medals (five gold), and 22 Finnish Championship medals (14 gold).

Known for

Matti Nykänen – The Legend — Self (archive footage)2025
Matti Nykänen Files — Himself (archive footage)2019
Haapasalo ja kaverit — himself2017

via TMDB

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 18,554
Total plays: 235,315

Key facts

Full name: Matti Ensio Nykänen
Born: ( 1963-07-17 ) 17 July 1963, Jyväskylä , Finland
Died: 4 February 2019 (2019-02-04) (aged 55) , Lappeenranta , Finland
Height: 1.74 m (5 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in)
Country: Finland
Sport: Skiing
Seasons: 1981 – 1991
Overall titles: 4 ( 1983 , 1985 , 1986 , 1988 )
Four hills titles: 2 ( 1983 , 1988 )
Personal bests: 191 m (627 ft) , Planica , 15 March 1985

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Gender: male
Citizenship: Finland
Place of birth: Jyväskylä
Place of death: Joutseno
Occupation: singer
Political party: Finns Party
Languages spoken: Finnish
Field of work: ski jumping
Instrument: voice
Sport: ski jumping
Country for sport: Finland
Mass: 54
Image: Matti Nykänen 2014-01-30 001 (cropped).jpg
Height: 177
Number of children: 3
Residence: Joutseno
Convicted of: assault

Show 12 more facts

Commons category: Matti Nykänen
date of birth: 1963-07-17
birth name: Matti Ensio Nykänen
personal best: 191
nickname: Nukes
date of death: 2019-02-04
name in native language: Matti Nykänen
cause of death: pneumonia
medical condition: diabetes
manner of death: natural causes
dance style: erotic dancing
on focus list of Wikimedia project: Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4

Sources (11)

via Wikidata · CC0

~10 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Updated on 10 February 2016

The longest jump at the ski jumping stadium in Laajavuori, Jyväskylä is called Matti Nykänen Hill (previously called Laajavuori Ski Jump Hill) Matti Ensio Nykänen ( pronounced [ˈmɑtːi ˈnykænen] ; 17 July 1963 – 4 February 2019) was a Finnish ski jumper who competed from 1981 to 1991. Known as "The Flying Finn", he is one of the most successful ski jumpers of all time, having won five Winter Olympic medals (four gold), nine World Championship medals (five gold), and 22 Finnish Championship medals (14 gold). Most notably, he won three gold medals at the 1988 Winter Olympics, becoming, along with Yvonne van Gennip of the Netherlands, the most medaled athlete that winter.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Matti Nykänen” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.