Jason Lamy-Chappuis (born September 9, 1986) is a Franco-American 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 ...

and cross-country skier who has represented France in Nordic combined ski events between 2002 and 2015, then in the 2017-18 season. Born in the United States, where he first began competing in skiing events, Chappuis moved with his family to France as a child. Prior to the

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

, he had seen success in a number of international competitions, including World Cup events. He won the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

in the 10km individual normal hill at the 2010 Winter Olympics in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, British Columbia, Canada after passing race leader Johnny Spillane in a dramatic sprint at the finish line. His final time was only .4 seconds faster than Spillane's, the closest finish in a Nordic combined race in Olympic history. Lamy-Chappuis, five times world champion and three times in a row winner of the overall classification of the Nordic Combined World Cup (2010, 2011, 2012) and also, winner of the sprint discipline in 2007, is a member of the ''Bois d'Amont'' ski club in the French department of Jura. He works for the French border patrol in addition to pursuing his athletic career. He returned in World Cup competitions on 24 November 2017, in Ruka, Finland.

Personal life

Born to a French father and an American mother in

Missoula Missoula ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is located along the Clark Fork River near its confluence with the Bitterroot River, Bitterroot and Blackfoot River (Montana), ...

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

, Lamy-Chappuis lived in the United States until he was 5, living mainly at Copper Mountain,

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. He participated in his first ski racing events at

Club Med Club Med SAS, commonly known as Club Med and previously known as Club Méditerranée SA, is a French travel and tourism operator headquartered in Paris, specializing in all-inclusive holidays. Founded in 1950, the company has been primarily ow ...

in Copper Mountain,

as a child. In 1991, at the age of five, he moved to the small village of

Bois-d'Amont Bois-d'Amont () is a commune in the Jura department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. Population See also *Communes of the Jura department The following is a list of the 492 communes of the Jura department of France. Th ...

in eastern France with his parents. There, he attended school and began more intensive training, but continued to race for

NASTAR National Standard Race (abbreviated NASTAR) is the world's largest recreational ski and snowboard race program. It was founded in 1968 by ''SKI'' magazine and is owned and operated by Outside Inc. NASTAR has a scoring system for assigning sco ...

, the American racing program, that year. Lamy-Chappuis still has many family members in the United States, many of whom traveled to Vancouver to cheer for him in the 2010 Olympics. He also maintains close ties to the American ski team, resulting in U.S. coach Dave Jarrett suggesting jokingly that Lamy-Chappuis switch back to his American citizenship to compete for them. Before flying to Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics, he attended a pre-Olympic training camp in Park City,

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

with the Americans. An avid flying enthusiast, Lamy-Chappuis started taking flying lessons at the age of 18, so far logging 70 flight hours. His website reflects his passion for flying and is designed to look like a

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, on the front part of an aircraft, spacecraft, or submersible, from which a pilot controls the vehicle. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the controls th ...

. He has stated that he plans to focus on receiving his pilot's license following the 2009–2010 season. In addition to skiing, Lamy-Chappuis works as a French border patrol officer. His nickname is "''Jèz''." Jason Lamy-Chappuis announced February 28, 2015, after winning his fifth world title in the team sprint with Francois Braud Falun he decided to take his retirement at the end of the 2014-2015 season to concentrate on his training airline pilot.

Athletic career

Lamy-Chappuis' first ski jumping competition was in

Les Rousses Les Rousses () is a commune in the Canton of Hauts de Bienne of Jura department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France, on the Swiss border. The Lac des Rousses is located northeast of the village of Les Rousses beside th ...

, France in 1991. Even though it was his first competition, he left as the winner. Since he had won cross-country competitions in the U.S. and ski jumping contests in France, he decided to continue pursuing both events through the Nordic combined. After establishing himself as a top regional skier in France, Lamy-Chappuis competed in his first international event in a European Cup Games competition 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 ...

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

during the 1999–2000 season. In 2001–2002, he debuted on the French national junior team, leading to appearances in major competitions in Norway, Sweden,

, Italy,

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, and Germany during his teenage years. Although he was routinely ranked among the top competitors on the circuit, Lamy-Chappuis has said that "I don't feel like I ever performed to my full potential on the World Cup circuit." He participated in his World Cup event in 2004 in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, Norway. In 2006, Lamy-Chappuis became the French champion of the

Nordic combined Nordic combined is a winter sport in which athletes compete in cross-country skiing (sport), cross-country skiing and ski jumping. The Nordic combined at the Winter Olympics has been held since the first 1924 Winter Olympics, Winter Olympics in ...

and won two World Cup events, at

Kuusamo Kuusamo (; ; ; ) is a List of cities and towns in Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland. It is located in Koillismaa, the northeastern part of the Northern Ostrobothnia regions of Finland, region. The municipality h ...

and

Sapporo is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in Hokkaido, Japan. Located in the southwest of Hokkaido, it lies within the alluvial fan of the Toyohira River, a tributary of the Ishikari River. Sapporo is the capital ...

. He made his Olympic debut at the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, Italy, placing 11th in the Nordic combined, 4th in the sprint, and 5th in the team event. His fourth-place finish in the sprint left him less than 15 seconds short of the bronze medal finish time, inspiring him to train harder to avoid such disappointment in the future. In the 2006-07, Lamy-Chappuis won the World Cup overall sprint ranking and finished second in the general ranking. Lamy-Chappuis participated in and won the 7.5 km sprint event at the 2007

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 ...

. He also won the French national championships that year, a feat he repeated in 2007–2008. In 2009, Lamy-Chappuis won two bronze medals at the

FIS Nordic World Ski Championships The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships is a biennial Nordic skiing event organized by the International Ski Federation (FIS). The World Championships was started in 1925 for men and opened for women's participation in 1954. World Championship eve ...

Liberec Liberec (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 108,000 inhabitants, making it the fifth largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse River, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well preserved and is pr ...

, in the 10 km individual large-hill and 10 km mass-start events.

Olympic Gold Medal

With five wins and nine podiums, Lamy-Chappuis entered the

, British Columbia, Canada as the World Cup leader in Nordic combined. On Sunday, February 14, Lamy-Chappuis won the Olympic gold medal in the 10km individual normal hill. His winning time was 25:47.1 and came after a frantic finish that involved a last-minute push on his part to beat American Johnny Spillane by .4 seconds. Spillane held the lead until Lamy-Chappuis' final sprint at the finish line eked out the win. It was the closest finish in Olympic Nordic combined history. Earlier in the day, he had finished fifth in the ski jump portion of the competition, one spot behind Spillane. Lamy-Chappuis said after the race that he "honestly didn't think ecould get the gold medal" after seeing Spillane's lead following the last hill. He attributed his win to Spillane's decision to slow down while entering the stadium, leaving Lamy-Chappuis with the opportunity to glide faster in the final stretch. The win made Lamy-Chappuis France's second gold medalist of the 2010 Winter Olympics, following Vincent Jay's gold medal earlier in the day in the men's 10 km

biathlon The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not ti ...

sprint. Lamy-Chappuis told the American media that he felt significant pressure from the French media to win the gold medal due to his World Cup success and the belief in the French media that he was "the best chance of a medal for France."

After 2010

Lamy-Chappuis qualified for the

2014 Winter Olympics The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (), were an international winter multi-sport event that was held from 7 to 23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Opening ro ...

but finished far from the podium. In May 2017, he said that he goes out of the retirement and starts preparing for the

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and also known as PyeongChang 2018 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Ko ...

. Lamy-Chappuis indeed qualified for the Olympics for both individual and team events, however, he was not considered a medal contender in individual events and hoped to medal, together with the French team, in the team competition.

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lamy-Chappuis, Jason 1986 births Nordic combined skiers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Nordic combined skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Nordic combined skiers at the 2014 Winter Olympics Nordic combined skiers at the 2018 Winter Olympics French male Nordic combined skiers Olympic Nordic combined skiers for France Olympic gold medalists for France American people of French descent French people of American descent Holmenkollen Ski Festival winners Living people Sportspeople from Missoula, Montana Olympic medalists in Nordic combined FIS Nordic World Ski Championships medalists in Nordic combined Medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics Commercial aviators 21st-century French sportsmen