By Dennis Passa
KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia — Noriaki Kasai came close Saturday to being the oldest individual gold medal winner at any Winter Olympics. Don’t worry, he says, he’ll be back in four years to try again.
The 41-year-old Kasai won silver in the men’s large hill ski jumping event, edged by Poland’s Kamil Stoch in a close final round at the RusSki Gorki Jumping Centre.
Kasai, who made his Olympics debut at Albertville, France in 1992, now has Olympic medals 20 years apart — he won his first, a team silver with Japan in the large hill — in 1994 at Lillehammer, Norway.
“All these years I was disappointed by the Olympic Games. Today I just had to do it,” he said. “I wanted gold but you know it is what it is.”
Silver medallist Noriaki Kasai, centre, is congratulated by Japan’s Taku Takeuchi, left, in the finish area of the men’s ski jump Saturday.
Kasai, who still has a chance to win a gold in the team large hill event — the Japanese had four jumpers finish inside the top 13 Saturday — didn’t hesitate when asked about competing at Pyeongchang, South Korea in 2018.
“Of course. I want to win. I want the gold medal,” he said.
A gold here would have broken a week-old record set by Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, the 40-year-old cross-country skier from Norway who finished first in the 10-kilometre sprint at Sochi.
Kasai says he’s motivated by athletes like Bjoerndalen — “it means that every person doesn’t have to give up, and you can continue doing sports and pressing for your goal.”
Still, Kasai has a number of age records all to himself.
He’s competing in a record seventh Winter Games, equal with luger Albert Demchenko of Russia, who has won two silvers at Sochi.
Japan’s Noriaki Kasai comes back to earth en route to his second-place finish in the ski jump Saturday.
In January, he became the oldest ski jumper to win a World Cup event — at Tauplitz, Austria.
The man who began ski jumping when he was nine and enjoys golfing, fishing and collecting wine made a big impression on Stoch.
“Of course I can understand him, because I think this was his big dream and he deserves this medal,” Stoch said.
“I congratulate him that he finally gets what he wanted because Kasai is a great man and a great challenger. It’s a great pleasure to be next to him right now.”