Together with his former teammateSven Hannawald, Martin Schmitt, brother of Nordic combinedThorsten Schmitt, has greatly popularized ski jumping in Germany in the early 21st century. He won the overall World Cup in 1998-99 and 1999-2000, was runner-up in 2000-2001, and earned a gold medal (2002) and two silver (1998 and 2010) at the Winter Olympics in the team event. Schmitt also won nine (4-3-2) medals at the World Championships between 1997 and 2009.

In ski flying he was the 2002 World Champion and in 1999 broke the world record with 214.5 m. In both 2000 and 2001 Schmitt placed third at the Four Hills Tournament. His brother Thorsten Schmitt was an alternate for the German Nordic combined team at Torino but was not selected. Besides his sports career Schmitt became a student, studying economics and politics. He also co-commented ski jumping events with German TV channel Eurosport. Later he founded a sport marketing agency.