Masahiko Harada

Template:Short description Template:Template other (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".

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.

Four years later Harada would again have his chance to contribute a gold for his team, 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 team gold medal for Japan.

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

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/A	N/A	N/A
1987/88	—	80	N/A	N/A	N/A
1989/90	52	—	N/A	N/A	N/A
1990/91	—	61	—	N/A	N/A
1991/92	29	—	—	N/A	N/A
1992/93	16	6	—	N/A	N/A
1993/94	15	21	—	N/A	N/A
1994/95	59	64	—	N/A	N/A
1995/96	5	18	—	N/A	Template:Bronze03
1996/97	29	42	—	13	24
1997/98	4	10	21	13	Template:Silver02
1998/99	9	8	8	18	9
1999/00	11	6	15	53	11
2000/01	26	21	50	53	N/A
2001/02	38	31	N/A	59	N/A
2002/03	—	—	N/A	—	N/A

Wins

No.	Season	Date	Location	Hill	Size
1	1995/96	8 December 1995	Template:Flagicon Villach	Villacher Alpenarena K90	NH
2		18 February 1996	Template:Flagicon Iron Mountain	Pine Mountain Ski Jump K120	LH
3		1 March 1996	Template:Flagicon Lahti	Salpausselkä K90 (night)	NH
4		3 March 1996	Template:Flagicon Lahti	Salpausselkä K114	LH
5	1997/98	8 December 1997	Template:Flagicon Villach	Villacher Alpenarena K90	NH
6		12 December 1997	Template:Flagicon Harrachov	Čerťák K90	NH
7		21 December 1997	Template:Flagicon Engelberg	Gross-Titlis-Schanze K120	LH
8		11 January 1998	Template:Flagicon Ramsau	Mattenschanze K90	NH
9		13 March 1998	Template:Flagicon Trondheim	Granåsen K120	LH

External links

• Template:FIS ski jumper
• FIS Announcement on Ambassador Appointment
• 2007 Nordic World Skiing Championship announcement