Nordic Roundup: Nykaenen's trial, Lajunen's music, Nystad's notes on golf

Nordic Roundup: Nykaenen’s trial, Lajunen’s music, Nystad’s notes on golf{mosimage}Nykaenen faces another assault trial

Finnish ski jumping great Matti Nykaenen is awaiting another trial following another stabbing incident. Nykaenen, 41, won everything ski jumping has to offer – including Olympic and World Championships gold medals plus World Cup titles back in the Eighties; since then, his life – chronically plagued by well-documented alcohol problems – has been one public horror show or police incident after another. Egon Theiner, who wrote an authorized biography of Nykaenen, told Agence France Presse, the ex-jumper could be subdued and pleasant but drinking often would cause him to become violent. “He is some kind of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” according to Theiner.

Nykaenen was arrested in mid-October and charged with attempted murder for allegedly stabbing a 59-year-old man in August during a drinking bout. Nykaenen was to go on trial October 27 in Tampere, Finland; he faces four years in jail. In August, he got a suspended sentence in after being charged with knifing his (fourth)(and fifth) wife (they married, divorced, remarried) in 2003.

The 1981 World Junior Championships jumping champion, Nykaenen was rewarded with a small house by his hometown and friends when he won a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo. He also reportedly received a lifetime job – no-show work schedule but always a paycheck – in connection with the ski jumping complex in Jyvaeskylae, his hometown. He won four World Cup titles and 46 World Cup jumping meets, but squandered his money. He turned to a singing career and released a couple of records, but went through that money, too.

Lajunen pulls it over to focus on singing

Samppa Lajunen of Finland, who took three nordic combined gold medals in 2002 at the Olympics in Salt Lake City, is kind of the anti-Nykaenen. While Nyaeken was a talented athlete but highly troubled away from the jump hill, Lajunen – another talented athlete but disciplined and savoring life, keeping his Finnmarks and Euros – has retired from the World Cup and is chasing a rock and roll singing career fulltime.

Lajunen, 25, has played in his own band for several years and said before the 2001 World Championships season he might retire before the Olympics. However, he dominated combined in ’02 and returned for each of the last two seasons, too. But with the season drawing near, Lajunen remains a rock ‘n’ roller, no longer a World Cup skier.

World Cup season kicks off on banks of the Rhine River in Dusseldorf, Germany

The World Cup cross-country season kicked off this weekend in Dusseldorf, Germany. For the third straight year, Sweden’s Peter Larsson won the first World Cup sprint of the season Saturday along the Rhine River in Dusseldorf, with Olympic champ Tor Arne Hetland of Norway runner-up under cloudy skies. Norwegian Marit Bjoergen made it eight consecutive women’s sprint wins, edging Anna Dahlberg of Sweden with defending World Cup champion Gabriella Paruzzi of Italy in third place. No U.S. skiers raced.

On the second day of the event, Norway won both ends of the cross-country team (i.e., two-skier) sprint relay. A day after winning in the solo sprint, Bjoergen teamed up with Hilde Pedersen to defeat Germany’s Manuela Henkel and Evi Sachenbacher by 4.8 seconds in the women’s race. Meanwhile Haavard Bjerkeli and Tor Arne Hetland edged Germany’s Tobias Angerer and Axel Teichmann by 2.4 seconds in the men’s team sprint.

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-From U.S. Ski Team news reports

Norwegian Nystad’s nine suggestions for newbies

Trond Nystad, U.S. cross-country skiing head coach, is a recent convert to golf. He says it’s never to late to learn a new sport. He’s an ancient (some might prefer “archaic”) 34.

Nystad, who denies his name is Norwegian for either “seriously troubled hacker” or “slice and hook,” describes his experience learning to play golf on the U.S. team’s own web site and says that powering through the inevitable startup woes (keep left elbow stiff, keep head down, no need to wax the putter – and never a need for klister) isn’t that far removed from learning how to cross-country ski. The former University of Vermont All-American skier, in his third season leading the U.S. national team, hopes that having spent $666 for a new set of clubs “will make me become one hell of a player.”

He lists nine points to make any sport – not just cross-country skiing (smile) or golf (snarl) – more enjoyable for newcomers. Included:

1. Be willing to try something new…

2. You are never too old to start a new sport.

7. Be patient…

9. Have fun.

Ibid. Don’t ever forget No. 9.

Viagra ingredient helps at altitude

A study in the Annals of Internal Medicine has shown sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, helps improve control of pulmonary hypertension and also may improve performance in low oxygen situations (e.g., at high altitude), according to Fasterskier.com.

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