Janne Ahonen honored by Red Bull — to serve as team leader at unique Zakopane event

A special ski jumping event will take place on 1 April 2026 at Poland’s ski jumping mecca in Zakopane, which can host 40,000 spectators. The competition is organized by energy drink giant Red Bull, whose turnover was €11 billion last year. Five teams of four athletes will take part.

Unlike standard competitions, the winner will not be the team with the most points after two rounds. Instead, victory goes to the squad whose eight jumps add up closest to a total of 1,000 meters.

Participants will be selected based on the overall standings of the 2025–26 World Cup season. Each team will have a legendary team leader, guaranteeing Finnish representation: Janne Ahonen has accepted an invitation to serve as one of the five leaders.

Ahonen’s fellow leaders are Polish national icon Adam Małysz, Germany’s Martin Schmitt, and Austria’s Thomas Morgenstern and Andreas Goldberger. Małysz collected four world titles and ten individual championship medals; Schmitt is an Olympic champion and four‑time world champion with 14 major medals. Morgenstern is a three‑time Olympic champion with 11 world titles and 20 major medals, while Goldberger owns two world titles and 12 major medals. In total, the quintet amassed 13 overall World Cup titles: four by Małysz, three by Goldberger, and two each by Ahonen, Schmitt, and Morgenstern.

Explaining the leaders’ role, Ahonen says they will be on the coaches’ platform with flags and radios, communicating with jumpers so they know the target distances needed in the closing stages. Team leaders can also choose the start gate for their athletes to fine‑tune jump length.

Ahonen notes that consistency will be key. At Zakopane, 1,000 meters would be achieved if every jump landed at the K‑point of 125 meters. In last year’s inaugural edition, the final jumper of the winning team needed exactly 95 meters to reach 1,000; in a similar situation, Ahonen says he would lower the start by five gates from what would normally yield 125 meters. The event is only in its second year, but this time the investment and planning are on a different level.

Ahonen also recalls Red Bull’s connection to him from 20 years ago, when the company sought helmet advertising that would have paid him hundreds of thousands of euros annually; the Finnish Ski Association’s rules prevented the deal at the time.

The piece revisits Ahonen’s storied Four Hills career. Exactly 20 years ago he and Czech Jakub Janda finished level on points after eight jumps, resulting in the only shared overall Four Hills title in history. Looking at this year’s tour, Ahonen tips Domen Prevc and Ryoyu Kobayashi as favorites, with Philipp Raimund a strong contender. The last German Four Hills winner was Sven Hannawald in 2001–02, who also became the first to sweep all four events; Kobayashi (2018–19) and Kamil Stoch (2017–18) have since matched the four‑win sweep.