Masahiko Harada

Masahiko Harada
原田雅彦
Masahiko Harada; 原田雅彦
Country	Japan
Full name	原田雅彦
Born	9 May 1968 (age 56); Kamikawa, Japan
Height	Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1851: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value).
Personal best	197 m (646 ft); Planica, Mar 1999
World Cup career
Seasons	1987–1988; 1990–2003
Individual wins	9
Team wins	3
Indiv. podiums	21
Team podiums	7
Yellow bibs	10
Indiv. starts	211
Team starts	13
Men's ski jumping
Olympic Games
FIS Nordic World Ski Championships
	Updated on 10 Jan 2016.

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]

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	SF	JP	4H	NT
1986/87	85	–	N/A	–	N/A
1987/88	–	–	N/A	80	N/A
1989/90	52	–	N/A	–	N/A
1990/91	–	–	N/A	61	N/A
1991/92	29	–	N/A	–	N/A
1992/93	16	–	N/A	6	N/A
1993/94	15	–	N/A	21	N/A
1994/95	59	–	N/A	64	N/A
1995/96	5	–		18	N/A
1996/97	29	–	24	42	13
1997/98	4	21		10	13
1998/99	9	8	9	8	18
1999/00	11	15	11	6	53
2000/01	26	50	N/A	21	53
2001/02	38	N/A	N/A	31	59
2002/03	–	N/A	N/A	–	–

Wins

No.	Season	Date	Place	Hill	Size
1	1995/96	8 Dec 1995	Villach	Villacher Alpenarena K-90	NH
2		18 Feb 1996	Iron Mountain	Pine Mountain Ski Jump K-120	LH
4		1 Mar 1996	Lahti	Salpausselkä K-90 (night)	NH
4		3 Mar 1996	Lahti	Salpausselkä K-114	LH
5	1997/98	8 Dec 1997	Villach	Villacher Alpenarena K-90	NH
6		12 Dec 1997	Harrachov	Čerťák K-90	NH
7		21 Dec 1997	Engelberg	Gross-Titlis-Schanze K-120	LH
8		11 Jan 1998	Ramsau	Mattenschanze K-90	NH
9		13 Mar 1998	Trondheim	Granåsen K-120	LH