When the last ski jumper had finished and Simon Ammann understood the gold was his, he went buggy. He leaped into the arms of two Swiss teammates who, with a determined but awkward effort, lifted him up on their shoulders.
“He’s light,” joked Andreas Kuettel. “That’s why he was winning today.”
Being lightweight is an advantage in ski jumping, but being a member of Weight Watchers doesn’t guarantee Olympic gold either.
Ammann, 20, a student who is 5 feet 8 inches and weighs 121 pounds, produced a heavyweight upset Sunday morning on the 90-meter hill.
Although Ammann was a 1998 Olympian in Nagano, Japan, he had never won a World Cup competition, was ranked ninth on the circuit and had been sidelined briefly with a minor head injury after a fall.
Yet on a brilliantly sunny day at Utah Olympic Park, Ammann relegated favorites Sven Hannawald of Germany to the silver and Adam Malysz of Poland to the bronze.
Alan Alborn of Anchorage was the top American, tying for 11th.
Alborn, 21, who is ranked 19th in the world, said the crowd of about 19,000 was the largest for a ski jump he has seen on U.S. soil “by about 100 times.”
Ammann, boyish-looking with reddish-brown hair, bounded onto the podium during a flower presentation when it was announced he had bested Hannawald by a score of 269.0 to 267.5 to win Switzerland’s first gold medal in the sport. Malysz’s score was 261.5 and Alborn’s 240.0.
Earlier in the competition Ammann jokingly blew on his skis, as if to say they were too hot, and he high-fived the other medalists.
Ski-jumping competitors are judged on a combination of distance and style. Sunday’s event telescoped two days of competition into one because Friday’s qualification round had been postponed by high winds. Ammann came in only with a goal of making the top 10.
“I knew I needed some luck,” Ammann, whose first language is German, said through a translator. “I was nervous. It’s been a dream.”
To begin, the competitors, who wear tapered nylon foam-and-rubber suits, sit on a bar at the top of the steep slope. When they push off, they lean forward into a tuck, ski onto a ramp and soar into the air, positioning their skis into a V shape. Then they straighten up as they land.
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The anonymous Ammann’s bubbly nature endeared him to the crowd and even competitors.
Hannawald praised him before the final score blinked on the board.
“In the Olympics and world championships, it’s only medals that count and not the color,” Hannawald said.
Alborn, who has a better chance in the K120 event, which starts Tuesday, said he was encouraged by Ammann.
“He came out of nowhere, basically,” Alborn said.
“But it’s kind of boring seeing the same guys winning every time.”
On his final jump Ammann seemed suspended in air, but he wasn’t sure if he had traveled far enough to beat Hannawald.
“I looked at the board,” Ammann said, “and there was nothing for such a long time. Then my name appeared.”
Although Ammann called his win a victory for the whole Swiss team, it was clear he still hadn’t gotten the hang of this gold-medal thing.
“All I do is ski jump, so there is no reason anyone should want autographs,” he said.