Lars Bystøl

Lars Bystøl
Bystøl in Oslo, 2008
Country Norway
Full nameLars Kristian Bystøl
Born (1978-12-04) 4 December 1978 (age 46)
Voss, Norway
Height1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)
Personal best216.5 m (710 ft)
Planica, 20 March 2005
World Cup career
Seasons2002–2008
Indiv. starts102
Indiv. podiums4
Indiv. wins1
Team starts4
Team podiums2
Medal record
Men's ski jumping
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2006 Turin Individual NH
Bronze medal – third place 2006 Turin Individual LH
Bronze medal – third place 2006 Turin Team LH
World Championships
Bronze medal – third place 2003 Val di Fiemme Team LH
Bronze medal – third place 2005 Oberstdorf Team LH
Men's ski flying
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2006 Bad Mitterndorf Team
Updated on 10 February 2016.

Lars Kristian Bystøl (born 4 December 1978) is a Norwegian former ski jumper who competed from 2002 to 2008. His career highlights include an individual gold medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics, one individual World Cup victory, a gold medal in the Ski Flying World Championships, and two World Championship bronze medals in team competitions.

Career

Bystøl won his first and only World Cup event on 4 January 2006, by winning the third event of the 2005–06 Four Hills Tournament in Innsbruck. Eleven days later, Bystøl won a gold medal in the team event at the 2006 Ski Flying World Championships in Bad Mitterndorf.

He continued the World Cup season by placing between 10th and 20th in the next three individual events, before going to the 2006 Winter Olympics. He retained his top 15 position in the World Cup standings, which enabled him to qualify for the normal hill of the Olympics despite being disqualified in the qualifying run.[1] Once there, he finished sixth in the first jump, but held on with a 103.5 metre second jump to win Olympic gold.

Bystøl finished 13th overall in the 2005/06 World Cup standings.

World Cup

Standings

 Season  Overall 4H NT
2001/02 65 — 46
2002/03 26 22 54
2003/04 21 10 22
2004/05 10 18 4
2005/06 13 16 13
2006/07 76 58 63
2007/08 37 — 18

Wins

No. Season Date Location Hill Size
1 2005/06 4 January 2006   Austria Innsbruck Bergiselschanze HS130 LH

Substance abuse

In 2000, he was sent home from a Continental Cup competition in Innsbruck after a party on New Year's Eve. Later that year he was caught DUI with a 2.38‰ blood alcohol content.[2] He was sentenced to 24 days in prison.[3] In 2003, after some heavy drinking, he fell into the ocean during a fight. Bystøl's alcoholism became so bad that it caused him to be kicked off the national ski jumping team in 2004, though he later managed to reclaim his spot on the team.

In early 2009, he admitted to having tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol, a derivative of cannabis. The sample was delivered in November 2008 in a Norwegian Cup race in Vikersund.[4]

Notes

  1. ^ "NH Individual Competition – Qualifying" (PDF). FIS Ski. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 May 2011. Retrieved 11 February 2006.
  2. ^ Thoresen, Arne. "Jeg har sviktet". Dagbladet (in Norwegian). Retrieved 11 May 2003.
  3. ^ Enger, Thomas. "Stjernene det lukter svidd av". Nettavisen (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 6 October 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2009.
  4. ^ Bye, Are (16 January 2009). "Bystøl narkotatt". Aftenposten (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 21 January 2009. Retrieved 16 January 2009.

References