Primož Peterka

Primož Peterka
File:Primož Peterka 2004 (2).jpg Peterka in 2004
Country	Slovenia
Born	(1979-02-28) 28 February 1979 Ljubljana, SR Slovenia, Yugoslavia
Height	1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)
Personal best	212 m (696 ft) Planica, 18 Mar 2000
World Cup career
Seasons	1996–2009
Individual wins	15
Indiv. podiums	32
Team podiums	2
Yellow bibs	22
Indiv. starts	230
Team starts	21
Overall titles	2 (1997, 1998)
Four Hills titles	1 (1997)
Ski Flying titles	1 (1997)
NH/LH titles	1 (1998)
Medal record Men's ski jumping Olympic Games 2002 Salt Lake City Team LH FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2005 Oberstdorf Team NH
Updated on 30 Mar 2015.

Primož Peterka (Slovene pronunciation: [ˈpriːmɔʃ ˈpeːtərka]; born 28 February 1979) is a Slovenian former ski jumper. During his career he won fifteen World Cup events, two consecutive World Cup titles; a ski flying World Cup title; and a Four Hills Tournament. He is held in regard as one of Slovenia's most successful sportsmen. Peterka currently works as an assistant coach in the Slovenian women's ski jumping team.

Career

Peterka was born in Prikrnica, near Ljubljana, Slovenia (then part of Yugoslavia). He started ski jumping on a small hill (with a K-point at around 20 metres) near his hometown of Moravče, a small town about 30 km north-east from Ljubljana. He later joined the Triglav ski club in Kranj.

He made his World Cup debut on 4 January 1996. Due to the poor results from Slovenian jumpers at the time, Peterka was brought in as a replacement for the Four Hills Tournament event in Innsbruck, where he finished eighth. This was considered a superb result, thereby making him the leading jumper for Slovenia. Peterka continued his good form, winning the events in Zakopane and Falun, and finishing the season ninth overall. He also finished second behind Michael Uhrmann at the 1996 Junior World Championships.

1996–97

Peterka at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1997

The 1996/97 season was a great success for Peterka. He won seven individual World Cup events, aswell as the Four Hills Tournament. Peterka dominated the overall World Cup standings as only one competitor (Dieter Thoma) finished within 200 points. Peterka finished on top the ski flying standings aswell. On 9 February 1997, Peterka became the first Slovenian to record a jump over 200 metres, landing a 203 m jump at Kulm.

1997–98

Peterka at Holmenkollen in 1998

The 1997/98 season was also successful. Peterka won four individual events and a second consecutive World Cup title, defeating Kazuyoshi Funaki in the final event of the season. At the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Peterka claimed fifth place in the individual large hill event and sixth in the individual normal hill event, results that some thought were disappointing.

World Cup

Standings

Season	Overall	SF	JP	4H	NT
1995/96	10	–	9	38	N/A
1996/97					6
1997/98				22	10
1998/99	27	20	31	28	41
1999/00	67	–	66	51	–
2000/01	–	–	N/A	–	–
2001/02	25	N/A	N/A	13	13
2002/03	7	N/A	N/A	5	21
2003/04	45	N/A	N/A	28	33
2004/05	34	N/A	N/A	38	24
2005/06	32	N/A	N/A	21	33
2006/07	81	N/A	N/A	–	–
2007/08	40	N/A	N/A	71	39
2008/09	47	20	N/A	45	–

Wins

No.	Season	Date	Place	Hill	Size
1	1995/96	27 Jan 1996	Zakopane	Wielka Krokiew K-116	LH
2		13 Mar 1996	Falun	Lugnet K-90	NH
3	1996/97	8 Dec 1996	Kuusamo	Rukatunturi K-120	LH
4		15 Dec 1996	Harrachov	Čerťák K-120	LH
5		1 Jan 1997	Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Große Olympiaschanze K-115	LH
6		11 Jan 1997	Engelberg	Gross-Titlis-Schanze K-120	LH
7		12 Jan 1997	Engelberg	Gross-Titlis-Schanze K-120	LH
8		9 Feb 1997	Tauplitz/Bad Mitterndorf	Kulm K-185	FH
9		13 Mar 1997	Falun	Lugnet K-115 (night)	LH
10	1997/98	18 Jan 1998	Zakopane	Wielka Krokiew K-116	LH
11		8 Mar 1998	Lahti	Salpausselkä K-116	LH
12		11 Mar 1998	Falun	Lugnet K-115 (night)	LH
13		15 Mar 1998	Oslo	Holmenkollbakken K-112	LH
14	2002/03	29 Nov 2002	Kuusamo	Rukatunturi K-120	LH
15		1 Jan 2003	Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Große Olympiaschanze K-115	LH

After success

As is typical for many young ski jumpers, Peterka underwent a personality crisis after his success. After three successful seasons, his results were suddenly no longer near the standards expected from him. During this time, details of his personal life were discussed in public, mostly his clashes with officials and his relationship with Renata Bohinc, a Slovenian beauty queen who won in 1996.

A turning point in Peterka's life and career came in 2001 when his son was born. In the 2001–02 World Cup season he returned to the ski jumping elite. At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, he won the bronze team medal. The 2002–03 season was also successful, with Peterka winning two individual events (Kuusamo and Garmisch-Partenkirchen) and finishing the season seventh overall.

The following years were not as successful for Peterka. From 2004 onwards he never again managed to finish inside the top 10 in an individual World Cup event. However, at the 2005 World Championships in Oberstdorf he won another bronze team medal for Slovenia (together with Jure Bogataj, Rok Benkovič and Jernej Damjan). This made Peterka the first Slovenian ski jumper to win medals at both the Olympics and the World Championships.

Film

Two sports documentary films were made about his life and career. The first was called Vleci, Primož ("Fly, Primož") and was directed by Beno Hvala in 1997, detailing the story of Peterka's early career. The second, Peterka: leto odločitve ("Peterka: Year of Decision"), was directed by Vlado Škafar in 2002 and focuses on the personality crisis of a young champion who struggles to find his way back to the top.

References

• Primož Peterka at the International Ski Federation
• Holmenkollen winners since 1892 – click Vinnere for downloadable pdf file (Norwegian)

Olympic Games
Preceded by Jure Košir	Flagbearer for Slovenia Nagano 1998	Succeeded by Dejan Košir