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Dominance
Though he finished second in the World Cup standings in 2007-08, Schlierenzauer truly emerged as his sport's premier competitor during a sensational 2008-09 campaign. Among the highlights from his season: first place in the overall World Cup standings (edging Switzerland's Simon Ammann, 2083 to 1776), two medals at the World Championships (silver on the normal hill and gold in the team competition), six consecutive World Cup victories (including two at the 2010 Olympic venue) and 13 individual World Cup wins to break the single-season record of 12 set by Finland's Janne Ahonen in 2004-05. At age 19, Schlierenzauer also became the youngest overall World Cup ski jumping champion since Slovenia's Primoz Peterka won the title as an 18-year-old in 1996-97.
Famous uncle
Schlierenzauer's uncle and manager is former Olympic luge competitor Markus Prock, a three-time Olympic medalist who won back-to-back silver medals at the 1992 Albertville Games and 1994 Lillehammer Games, then won bronze at the 2002 Salt Lake Games. With three medals, Prock is the third-most decorated medalist in the history of the men's singles event at the Olympics, behind only Georg Hackl of Germany (five medals) and Armin Zoeggeler of Italy, who has four medals and will attempt to get his fifth in Vancouver.
Scouting report
2006 Olympian Anders Johnson of the United States says that what makes Schlierenzauer so impressive is "[not just] his natural talent, but his work ethic. He's probably the most talented person on a ski jump, and probably in history. But the fact that he still works that hard at it shows that he doesn't take it for granted." Johnson also says of his opponent, "He knows that he's the best every day, but he's still going out there and trying to win. And he is still young. And so he's just naïve enough to not really put too much focus and emphasis on one certain event like the Olympics. He goes out thinking it's just another day."
The human typo
It doesn't take a trained set of eyes to look at Schlierenzauer's surname and realize that it's lengthy. But exactly how long is it? The answer: historically long. In ski jumping's Olympic lifespan (which dates back to the first Olympic Winter Games, in Chamonix, France, in 1924), only one athlete has won an Olympic medal while carrying a longer last name than Schlierenzauer: Reinhard Schwarzenberger, who won bronze as a member of the Austrian team at the 2002 Salt Lake Games. For those keeping score, Schwarzenberger has 15 letters, Schlierenzauer has 14.
Austrian tradition
Throughout Olympic history, the only nations to have won more ski jumping medals than Austria's 20 are Norway, with 28, and Finland, with 22. At the 2006 Torino Games, Austria won three ski jumping medals: gold for Thomas Morgenstern on the large hill, silver for Andreas Kofler on the large hill, and gold in the team competition. The gold medals in Torino were the first ski jumping golds for Austria at the Olympics since Ernst Vettori won the normal hill at the 1992 Games in Albertville.
