Masahiko Harada

Masahiko Harada (原田 雅彦, Harada Masahiko) (born 9 May 1968) is a Japanese former ski jumper. He is best remembered for a meltdown at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, which cost the Japanese national team a victory, and his subsequent redemption at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano; the latter of which led to him being affectionately called "Happy Harada".[1]

This article is about the ski jumper. For the boxer, see Fighting Harada.
Masahiko Harada
原田 雅彦
Country Japan
Full name原田 雅彦
Born (1968-05-09) 9 May 1968
Kamikawa, Japan
Height1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Personal best197 m (646 ft)
Planica, 18-21 March 1999
World Cup career
Seasons1987–1988
1990–2003
Individual wins9
Team wins3
Indiv. podiums21
Team podiums7
Indiv. starts211
Team starts13
Medal record
Men's ski jumping
Olympic Games
1998 Nagano Team LH
1994 Lillehammer Team LH
1998 Nagano Individual LH
FIS Nordic World Ski Championships
1993 FalunIndividual NH
1997 TrondheimIndividual LH
1997 TrondheimIndividual NH
1997 TrondheimTeam LH
1999 RamsauTeam LH
1999 RamsauIndividual NH
Updated on 10 February 2016.

Career

At the 1994 games, the Japanese team had a nearly insurmountable lead heading into the last jump of the large hill. Harada, the team's anchor, had jumped 122 meters in his previous attempt and needed only 105 meters in his final jump to clinch the gold for Japan. His jump was just shy of 97,5 meters and dropped Japan to second, with the gold going to the German team.[2]

Four years later Harada would again have his chance to deliver his team a gold, this time in his home country. His first jump of 79.5 meters knocked his team from first to fourth and brought back memories of Lillehammer. Then, on his second attempt he delivered an Olympic-record tying 137 meter jump. His teammate Kazuyoshi Funaki would then close out the event with a 125 meter jump, clinching the first Olympic ski jumping gold medal for Japan since the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo.

Along with the team gold, Harada also captured bronze in Nagano in the individual large hill after a 136 meter final jump that pushed up him from sixth to third.

Harada has competed in five of the Olympic Games. In addition to the Lillehammer and Nagano games, he competed in Albertville in 1992, Salt Lake City in 2002 and Turin in 2006.

He is a two-time FIS Nordic World Ski Championships winner (1993: individual normal hill, 1997: individual large hill), and also won three silvers (1997: Individual normal hill, 1997, 1999: Team large hill) and one bronze (1999: Individual normal hill) as well.

Olympic normal hill individual competition in Pragelato on 11 February 2006 was the last highly ranked official event where he participated - who won 2 Olympic medals in Nagano and 1 in Lillehammer - and it was after over 3 years break from participating in Ski jumping World Cup. Unfortunately for him, he was disqualified in the qualifying and did not compete in the final. Later he started only in FIS Cup event in Sapporo.[3][4]

On July 12, 2006, Harada was appointed Ambassador to the 2007 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Sapporo, Japan by the organizing committee. The 2007 Championships ran February 22-March 4, 2007.

World Cup

Standings
Season Overall 4H SF NT JP
1986/87 85—N/AN/AN/A
1987/88 —80N/AN/AN/A
1989/90 52—N/AN/AN/A
1990/91 —61—N/AN/A
1991/92 29——N/AN/A
1992/93 166—N/AN/A
1993/94 1521—N/AN/A
1994/95 5964—N/AN/A
1995/96 518—N/A
1996/97 2942—1324
1997/98 4102113
1998/99 988189
1999/00 116155311
2000/01 26215053N/A
2001/02 3831N/A59N/A
2002/03 ——N/A—N/A

Wins
No. Season Date Location Hill Size
1 1995/968 December 1995   VillachVillacher Alpenarena K90NH
2 18 February 1996   Iron MountainPine Mountain Ski Jump K120LH
3 1 March 1996   LahtiSalpausselkä K90 (night)NH
4 3 March 1996   LahtiSalpausselkä K114LH
5 1997/988 December 1997   VillachVillacher Alpenarena K90NH
6 12 December 1997   HarrachovČerťák K90NH
7 21 December 1997   EngelbergGross-Titlis-Schanze K120LH
8 11 January 1998   RamsauMattenschanze K90NH
9 13 March 1998   TrondheimGranåsen K120LH

References
  1. "Masahiko Harada – From Meltdown to Marvelous" Archived 2018-07-10 at the Wayback Machine. olympics30.com. Retrieved 2015-05-13.
  2. John Walters (February 4, 1998). "1998 Nagano Olympics-Masahiko Harada". Sports Illustrated.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-10-26. Retrieved 2010-01-01.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. "Torino 2006 Official Report - Ski Jumping" (PDF). Torino Organizing Committee. LA84 Foundation. March 2009. Retrieved May 20, 2009.
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