Jan Boklöv is a ski jumping legend that hardly anyone talks about. The Swede changed the sport significantly – and once seriously upset the Norwegians. Today Boklöv celebrates its 60th birthday.
Jan Boklöv is the type of person who likes to be left alone. “I don’t need the style to have my name on it. People know who I am that way. If it were the Boklöv style, I would probably have less peace of mind because people would constantly ask me about it,” he told “Welt” two years ago in an interview during the Four Hills Tournament.
The Swede doesn’t care that he – unlike Dick Fosbury in the high jump – is not present in his sport by definition. “I don’t need to hear my name all the time.”
Jan Boklöv is a legend. A revolutionary. The man who significantly changed modern ski jumping. In the 1980s, Boklöv “invented” the V-style. Randomly. During summer training on a matted ski jump in Falun in 1985, a gust of wind tore his skis apart. “Otherwise I always ended up at 70 meters, suddenly it became 90 meters. After that I just did the V,” said Boklöv about the sporting aha moment of his life.
Judges drank Jägermeister at Boklöv jumps
Initially, commentators spoke – sometimes in a contemptuous tone – of the “Boklöv scissors”. But the term V-style quickly became established, which today every child who is interested in ski jumping knows. Boklöv was not a stylist in the aesthetic sense, but rather a “fidget Philipp” of the air. It wasn’t because he was epileptic. The new style required training.
It took time for Boklöv to systematize his technique. In the 1988/89 season, the Swede finally jumped away from the competition, including industry giants Matti Nykänen and Jens Weißflog, winning five individual competitions and the overall World Cup.
But apart from the fans who gaped at Boklöv’s daringly long jumps on the ski jumps around the world, the triumphant was not a celebrated man. On the contrary. In parts of the ski jumping world, more precisely at official level, the undercover agent was causing offense. The parallel style was the measure of things here. And Boklöv ostracized.
Torbjørn Yggeseth, the Norwegian president of the jumping committee of the World Federation of Fis, saw the aesthetics of the sport at risk and even described the V style as “immoral”. Looking back, it was an almost unbearable narrow-mindedness. The judges punished Boklöv’s long-distance pursuit with huge deductions; otherwise he would have won more than five individual World Cups.
“That’s just how the Norwegians are. They think they can do everything perfectly. When a Swedish boy comes along and wins with something new, of course the Norwegians don’t like it,” recalled Boklöv. The jurors often apologized to him. “We can’t give you more points because our boss forbids us to do so. The judges often set their points for me before I even jumped. They weren’t allowed to give me more points anyway. So they were able to drink a Jägermeister during the competition while I was jumping because they were just watching idly anyway,” the 60-year-old looked back.
Ski jumping evolution quickly overtook V inventor Boklöv
Evolution could not be stopped. Boklöv’s way of flying not only made greater distances possible. “My style is safer because you sail more stable than an airplane with wings. With the parallel style you are much more vulnerable, you lose your balance more quickly and tip over to the right or left,” explained the pioneer. It didn’t take long before imitators appeared. GDR trainer Reinhard Heß gave his athletes the task of learning the V. In 1990, André Kiesewetter became the second ski jumper to win with the crossbars spread.
By the 1992 Olympic Games in Albertville it became clear that the era of parallel style was over. The German model athletes Weißflog and Dieter Thoma hopped behind in France in the classic way with no chance. Established jumpers like Ernst Vettori, who had converted, won medals, the 16-year-old Finnish milk boy Toni Nieminen flew away from everyone in the V with a long assist. Boklöv was just a competitor with no chance. The development of the style he introduced had quickly overtaken him. Two years later in Lillehammer, no one was jumping parallel anymore. Weißflog became the first ski jumper in history to win Olympic gold with both styles.
Boklöv had already ended his career by then. In January 1993 he competed in his last World Cup in ski flying at the Kulm. While his successors jumped further and further and pushed the world record to ever more dizzying heights, the “leader” fell into oblivion. Boklöv decisively changed the course of ski jumping history. While the Fosbury era simply required raising the bar in the high jump, the V style required an infrastructural revolution. “I’m probably the most expensive athlete of all time. Because of my style, every jump in the run-out had to be rebuilt because everyone flew further at once. So I was very expensive!”, Boklöv described his influence.
Kiesewetter calls for recognition in Falun
“There are only a few athletes who have changed their sport so much on their own. The V style should be called Boklöv style,” demanded former DSV Adler Kiesewetter in an interview with “SID” on the occasion of Boklöv’s 60th birthday. He would like his former colleague to finally receive a worthy honor in Falun, where the World Cup will take place in 2027. “I heard that they want to lure him to the ski jump there. I hope that he will be honored there. I will talk to FIS race director Sandro Pertile about it,” said Kiesewetter, who is still active in the ski jumping circus as a Swiss physiotherapist.
Would Boklöv come? “I didn’t jump like that to change the world, but simply to be able to keep flying,” he said two years ago: “I didn’t change the world, but the world changed because of my style.” Jan Boklöv is modest. He likes to be left alone. Happy 60th birthday!
