Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.Olympics: Alert: Nukes Away!
As the crowd chanted "Matti! Matti!" and his countrymen waved blue-and-white Finnish flags, the superbrat of ski jumping shot down the runway at 54 m.p.h. Body tucked, hands behind his back, he soared off as though someone had slipped a piece of hot charcoal into his ski boot.
It was a typical Matti Nykanen performance: an explosive takeoff, an eerily long floating descent and -- as of right -- a first-place finish. The boyish Nykanen, 24, punched the air in triumph and seemed to ignore the awed congratulations of Pavel Ploc and Jiri Malec, the Czechs who finished a distant second...
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