Matti Nykänen

Nykänen met millionaire “sausage heiress” Mervi Tapola (1954–2019 ) in 1999, and they were married from 2001 to 2003.

Matti Ensio Nykänen (17 July 1963 – 4 February 2019) was a Finnish ski jumper who competed from 1981 to 1991.

He is one of the most successful ski jumpers of all time, having won five Winter Olympic medals (four gold), nine World Championship medals (five gold), and 22 Finnish Championship medals (14 gold).

For most of the 1980s, Nykänen and Jens Weißflog of East Germany dominated the sport.

Nykänen also won the ski jumping competition at the Holmenkollen ski festival twice (1982, 1985).

Nykänen won gold and silver at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.

His 17.5-point gold medal victory was the largest margin of victory in Olympic ski jumping history at the time.

On 16 March 1984, he set ski jumping world distance record on official training two times at 182 metres (597 ft).

And on the next day at 185 metres (607 ft), all three in Oberstdorf, West Germany.

In 1985 he flew 191 metres in Planica, a world record that stood briefly until Piotr Fijas (Poland) flew 194 metres, again in Planica, in 1987.

His other achievements include a total of nine medals (five golds) at the World Championship level.

He also won a total of 46 World Cup competitions (only now topped by the current record-holder Gregor Schlierenzauer, Austria) and won the overall title four times (also a record, currently shared with Adam Małysz Poland).

He won the prestigious Four Hills Tournament twice.

He competed in the FIS Ski Flying World Championships five times and placed in the medals every time.

On 15 March 1985, he set two ski jumping world distance records on official training at 187 metres (614 ft) and at 191 metres (627 ft), both of them on Velikanka bratov Gorišek in Planica, Yugoslavia.

He set five world records in total, the most of any ski jumper in history.

Nykänen was married six times:

In 1987, Nykänen was awarded the Holmenkollen Medal (shared with Hermann Weinbuch).

Most notably, he won three gold medals at the 1988 Winter Olympics, becoming, along with Yvonne van Gennip of the Netherlands, the most medaled athlete that winter.

Nykänen is the only ski jumper in history to have won all five of the sport's major individual titles: a gold medal at the Winter Olympics (three times), the Ski Jumping World Championships (once), the Ski Flying World Championships (once), four World Cup overall titles, and the Four Hills Tournament (twice).

His four World Cup titles is an all-time male record shared with Adam Małysz.

Nykänen remains the only male five-time ski flying world record holder in history.

He was also the first ever to win gold medals on both hills at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

From the 1990s onwards, Nykänen's status as a celebrity was mainly fueled by his personal relationships, his career as a pop singer, and various incidents often related to heavy use of alcohol and violent behaviour.

The marriage was tempestuous and gave rise to many well-publicised incidents: The first reported assault against Tapola occurred in June 2000, following a restraining order that was imposed upon Nykänen.

Nykänen had already been accused of assaulting Tapola in 2001, but the charges were withdrawn because Tapola exercised her right to remain silent.

They got divorced in 2003, and remarried again in 2004.

He was sentenced to 26 months in prison following a stabbing incident in 2004, and again for 16 months following an aggravated assault on his wife in 2009.

In 2004, Nykänen was handed a suspended sentence for assaulting Tapola again.

On 24 August 2004, Nykänen was arrested on suspicion of attempted manslaughter of a family friend after losing a finger pulling competition in Tottijärvi, Nokia.

In October 2004, he was found guilty of aggravated assault, and sentenced to 26 months in prison.

In September 2005, while on probation for another assault, Nykänen was re-arrested four days after his release for abusing his partner again.

Nykänen was convicted and imprisoned for four months on 16 March 2006.

Soon after his release, he stabbed a man in a pizza restaurant in Korpilahti.

On 28 February 2008, he won the International Masters Championship for veteran ski jumpers.

In the summer of 2009, Tapola (then Tapola-Nykänen) petitioned for divorce a 14th time, but cancelled it.

On Christmas Day 2009, Nykänen allegedly injured his wife with a knife and tried to throttle her with a bathrobe belt.

He was charged for attempted manslaughter and held in custody by Tampere police, but was released on 28 December after charges were dropped for insufficient evidence.

On 24 August 2010, Nykänen was convicted of grievous bodily harm and sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to pay €5,000 in compensation to his wife for pain and emotional suffering and €3,000 for legal expenses.

In August 2010, Tapola made a 15th request for divorce.