Thomas Morgenstern

Austrian ski jumper and three-time Olympic champion who won two World Cup overall titles and survived a serious crash at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Born on 30 October 1986 in Spittal an der Drau, Austria, Thomas Morgenstern made his FIS Ski Jumping World Cup debut in 2002 at age 16 and won his first World Cup event the following year at Liberec, going on to help Austria claim four gold medals at the 2003 Nordic World Ski Championships within months of his debut. Morgenstern won the overall World Cup title twice, in 2007-08 and 2010-11, and the Four Hills Tournament and Nordic Tournament once each. He was part of Austria's dominant ski jumping generation alongside teammates Gregor Schlierenzauer and Andreas Kofler, helping the national team win Olympic team gold medals at both the 2006 Turin and 2010 Vancouver Games. Morgenstern won three Winter Olympic gold medals across his career — one individual, two team — along with eight World Championship gold medals, seven of them in team events. His 23 individual World Cup wins place him among the sport's most successful competitors of the modern era. Morgenstern's career included a frightening moment at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, where he suffered a heavy crash during the team large hill event that he later described as a 'horror crash', though he recovered to continue competing. He retired from ski jumping in 2014, closing out a career widely regarded as one of the finest of his generation.

Powerful, consistent jumper with strong technical fundamentals

One of the most successful ski jumpers of his generation and a key figure in Austria's era of dominance