Espen Bredesen (born 2 February 1968) is a Norwegian former

ski jumper Ski jumping is a winter sport in which competitors aim to achieve the farthest jump after sliding down on their skis from a specially designed curved ramp. Along with jump length, competitor's aerial style and other factors also affect the fin ...

Career

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

level he won gold and silver medals at the

1994 Winter Olympics The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, were an international winter multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Hav ...

Lillehammer Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the munici ...

. At the

1992 Winter Olympics The 1992 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVI Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Albertville '92 (Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Arbèrtvile '92''), were a winter multi-sport event held from 8 to 23 February 1992 in and aroun ...

, he performed badly, coming last in the normal hill and 57th out of 59 on the large hill. He had converted from the parallel technique to the V-style just a month previously. His poor performance gave him the nickname "Espen the Eagle", based on British ski jumper

Eddie 'the Eagle' Edwards Michael David Edwards (born 5 December 1963), better known as Eddie the Eagle, is an English ski jumper and Olympian who in 1988 became the first competitor to Great Britain at the Olympics, represent Great Britain in ski jumping at the Winter ...

.Athlete profile: Espen Bredesen

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

At the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 1993 in

Falun Falun () is a city and the seat of Falun Municipality in Dalarna County, Sweden, with 37,291 inhabitants in 2010. It is also the capital of Dalarna County. Falun forms, together with Borlänge, a metropolitan area with just over 100,000 inhabit ...

, he won gold medals both in the team large hill and the individual large hill events. In the 1993/94 season, he won the Four Hills Tournament. He won gold and silver medals at the

, and won a silver medal at the FIS Ski-Flying World Championships 1994 in

Planica Planica () is an Alpine valley in northwestern Slovenia, extending south from the border village of Rateče, not far from another well-known ski resort, Kranjska Gora. Further south, the valley extends into the Tamar Valley, a popular hikin ...

. Bredesen twice beat the world

ski flying Ski flying is a winter sport discipline derived from ski jumping, in which much greater distances can be achieved. It is a form of competitive individual sport, individual Nordic skiing where athletes descend at high speed along a specially de ...

record with jumps of 209 meters (1994) and 210 meters (1997). Bredesen also won the ski jumping competition at the

Holmenkollen ski festival The Holmenkollen Ski Festival ( or ) is a traditional annual Nordic skiing event in Holmenkollen, Oslo, Norway. The full official name of the event is Holmenkollen FIS World Cup Nordic. History It takes place in March and has been arranged every ...

in 1993. He was awarded the Holmenkollen medal in 1994 (shared with Ljubov Egorova and Vladimir Smirnov).

World Cup

Standings

Wins

Ski jumping world record

WR statement

Bredesen's statement after his first world record in Planica 1994 when he jumped 209m:

References

*
Holmenkollen medalists
- click Holmenkollmedaljen for downloadable pdf file
Holmenkollen winners since 1892
- click Vinnere for downloadable pdf file {{DEFAULTSORT:Bredesen, Espen 1968 births Holmenkollen medalists Holmenkollen Ski Festival winners Living people Norwegian male ski jumpers Olympic gold medalists for Norway Olympic silver medalists for Norway Olympic ski jumpers for Norway Ski jumpers at the 1992 Winter Olympics Ski jumpers at the 1994 Winter Olympics Ski jumpers at the 1998 Winter Olympics Skiers from Oslo Olympic medalists in ski jumping FIS Nordic World Ski Championships medalists in ski jumping Medalists at the 1994 Winter Olympics World record setters in ski flying 20th-century Norwegian sportsmen