Thomas Morgenstern (born 30 October 1986) is an Austrian formerski jumper who competed from 2002 to 2014. He is one of the most successful ski jumpers of all time, having won theWorld Cup overall title twice with 23 individual wins, theFour Hills Tournament and theNordic Tournament once each, eightWorld Championship gold medals (one individual, seven team), and threeWinter Olympic gold medals (one individual, two team).
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Morgenstern began his ski jumping career in theContinental Cup, winning three events out of four attempts.[1] He made his senior level World Cup debut at the 2002–03Four Hills Tournament, where he finished 9th inOberstdorf, 25th inGarmisch-Partenkirchen, 9th inInnsbruck and 6th inBischofshofen; this placed him 10th overall in the final tournament standings. Five days after the end of the tournament, he won his first World Cup event inLiberec.[2] In the following summer, he won theSki jumping Grand Prix for the first time.[3]
At the start of the2003–04 season, Morgenstern suffered a violent accident inKuusamo, in which he was hit by a gust of wind just after takeoff, forcing him to flip over in mid-air and land hard on his back.[4] He only sustained minor injuries, and managed to recover quickly to continue his success. He was second overall toSigurd Pettersen during most of that season's Four Hills tournament, finally ending up in fourth place. He won his first team medal with a 3rd place at theSki-Flying World Championships.[5]
In the next season, Morgenstern won gold medals in both team events (normal hill and large hill) at theNordic World Ski Championships.[6]
During the2006 Winter Olympics, he won the gold medals in the individual and team large hill competitions.[7] Further, he won the bronze medal in the single event at theSki-Flying World Championships inBad Mitterndorf.[5] By ending up as 5th, Morgenstern achieved his best ranking in the world cup so far.[2]
In the 2006–07 season, he won the large hill team event at theNordic World Ski Championships. Further, by reaching the 3rd place in the normal hill event he won his first individual medal at world championships.[6] As in 2003, Morgenstern won the Ski jumping Grand Prix.[3]
At the beginning of the2007–08 season, he won the first six competitions, which is an all-time record.[8] With these six wins he also tied the record for most wins in a row, previously set byJanne Ahonen,Matti Hautamäki andGregor Schlierenzauer.[9] In early 2008, Morgenstern won a gold medal at theSki-Flying World Championships inOberstdorf. Morgenstern won the world cup for the first time, 233 points ahead of Gregor Schlierenzauer.
During the2008–09 season, Morgenstern could not win any competition, but won a team gold medal at theNordic World Ski Championships in Liberec.[6]
The2009–10 world cup again was very modest with only two victories. However, Morgenstern won gold medals in the team events at theSki-Flying World Championships and the2010 Winter Olympics.[5][7]
The season2010–11 again started very successful by winning four of the first six competitions. Morgenstern further won theFour Hills Tournament for the first time in this season. In January 2011, he won his first ski flying event inHarrachov, and fixed his second victory of the ski jumping world cup with a 5th place at the ski flying competition inVikersund on 13 February. At the2011 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships inOslo he won gold on the normal hill. It was his first gold medal in an individual event at world championships. In the following he further won gold medals in the team events (normal hill and large hill), both times together withAndreas Kofler,Martin Koch and Gregor Schlierenzauer, as well as the silver medal in the individual large-hill event.
On 10 January 2014, he suffered serious head injuries during training for the ski flying event in Bad Mitterndorf.[10] He recovered in time to take part in the2014 Winter Olympics inSochi, where he placed 14th in the normal hill and 40th in the large hill men's individual ski jumping events.[11]
On 26 September 2014, Morgenstern announced his retirement from competitive ski jumping.[12] His last jump in competitive ski jumping was when he won the silver medal with the Austrian team at the2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
| Season | Overall | 4H | SF | NT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002/03 | 20 | 10 | N/A | 9 |
| 2003/04 | 6 | 4 | N/A | 9 |
| 2004/05 | 7 |  | N/A | 8 |
| 2005/06 | 5 | 20 | N/A |  |
| 2006/07 | 6 | 4 | N/A | 17 |
| 2007/08 | |  | N/A | 6 |
| 2008/09 | 7 | 8 | 18 | 8 |
| 2009/10 | | 6 | 18 | |
| 2010/11 | | | | N/A |
| 2011/12 | 7 | | 7 | N/A |
| 2012/13 | 25 | 16 | — | N/A |
| 2013/14 | 15 | | — | N/A |
| No. | Season | Date | Location | Hill | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2002/03 | 11 January 2003 |  Liberec | Ještěd A K120(night) | LH |
| 2 | 2005/06 | 10 March 2006 |  Lillehammer | Lysgårdsbakken HS134(night) | LH |
| 3 | 2007/08 | 1 December 2007 |  Kuusamo | Rukatunturi HS142(night) | LH |
| 4 | 8 December 2007 | Trondheim | Granåsen HS131(night) | LH | |
| 5 | 9 December 2007 | Trondheim | Granåsen HS131 | LH | |
| 6 | 13 December 2007 |  Villach | Villacher Alpenarena HS98 | NH | |
| 7 | 14 December 2007 | Villach | Villacher Alpenarena HS98(night) | NH | |
| 8 | 22 December 2007 |  Engelberg | Gross-Titlis-Schanze HS137 | LH | |
| 9 | 30 December 2007 |  Oberstdorf | Schattenbergschanze HS137(night) | LH | |
| 10 | 2 February 2008 |  Sapporo | Ōkurayama HS134(night) | LH | |
| 11 | 3 February 2008 | Sapporo | Ōkurayama HS134 | LH | |
| 12 | 8 February 2008 | Liberec | Ještěd A HS134(night) | LH | |
| 13 | 2009/10 | 6 January 2010 | Bischofshofen | Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze HS140(night) | LH |
| 14 | 16 January 2010 | Sapporo | Ōkurayama HS134(night) | LH | |
| 15 | 2010/11 | 4 December 2010 | Lillehammer | Lysgårdsbakken HS138(night) | LH |
| 16 | 5 December 2010 | Lillehammer | Lysgårdsbakken HS138 | LH | |
| 17 | 17 December 2010 | Engelberg | Gross-Titlis-Schanze HS137 | LH | |
| 18 | 18 December 2010 | Engelberg | Gross-Titlis-Schanze HS137 | LH | |
| 19 | 30 December 2010 | Oberstdorf | Schattenbergschanze HS137(night) | LH | |
| 20 | 4 January 2011 | Innsbruck | Bergiselschanze HS130 | LH | |
| 21 | 9 January 2011 | Harrachov | Čerťák HS205 | FH | |
| 22 | 2011/12 | 6 January 2012 | Bischofshofen | Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze HS140(night) | LH |
| 23 | 2013/14 | 14 December 2013 | Titisee-Neustadt | Hochfirstschanze HS142 | LH |
In 2013 he left his girlfriend of 10 years and went on vacation to Hawaii with his new girlfriend, a physiotherapist.[13] He has a daughter named Lily (born 26 December 2012) with his ex-fiancee and twins named Sara and Tina (born 2021) with his current partner Sabrina.[14]
FIS Ski Jumping World Cup champions | |
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Four Hills Tournament winners | |
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