Yes, Mr. Phelps, your eight gold medals at one Olympics during Beijing 2008 was very impressive, but if we recall correctly you only managed to compete in five Olympic Games – Is this correct?
Okay, that’s still insanely impressive, but so is competing at eight different Olympic Games – a feat one man is looking to do for the first time in history this year.
Noriaki Kasai is a Japanese ski jumper that has been around for a very, very, very long time. He first competed internationally in 1988 when he made his World Cup debut at the age of 16. He managed to finish 31st in the competition, held in his native country of Japan.
Kasai then qualified for his first Olympics in 1992, the final year that saw both a Summer and Winter Olympic Games. Since then he has gone on to compete in each of the following Winter Olympics and has now officially qualified for Pyeongchang 2018. Over his time as an Olympian, Kasai has won three medals – two silver and a bronze – spread out over 20 years (Lillehammer 1994 and Sochi 2014.) He is now 45 years old and is still kicking it, setting a new personal best in 2017.
Not only is he chasing history, as well as that elusive Gold medal, but he doesn’t plan on slowing down. The Jaromir Jagr of ski jumping told the Japanese Times that he made a plan a few years ago to compete until he is 50. That was before, however, he heard that his native city of Sapporo may be in the running for hosting the 2026 Olympics.
“When I reached 40, I decided I would call it quits when I turned 50. But now Sapporo, my birthplace, is [potentially] bidding for the 2026 Games. I will be 54 by that time, but it is too big a chance to give up.”
While he has only won one gold medal in major competition at the 1992 FIS Ski Flying World Championship, the man has become a legend through consistency and resilience alone. Not only is he set to become the only person to ever have competed in eight Olympics, he is only one of two people to have competed in seven (Russian luger Albert Demtschenko competed in his 7th at Sochi as well, although he was eventually disqualified amangst the Russian doping allegations). If he does in fact compete until 2026 (which, admittedly, is a long shot even if Sapporo does win hosting rights) he will have competed in 10 Olympic games spanning over 32 years.
Can this guy get any cooler? Well, turns out he can.
He is not only a legend in Japan, he is also well respected worldwide. He has a Polish rap song written about him, as well as a Finnish punk rock song.
While our Canadian audience will certainly be cheering on the Canucks, it’s hard not to like this guy.
(H/T NBC Olympics)
