Matti Nykänen Quotes

In in recent weeks, I have made references on a couple of occasions to the legendary Finnish ski-jumper and bon-viveur Matti Nykänen. In particular, I have mentioned that he was the source of classic, mostly unintentional, humourous quotes.

However, it has come to my notice that only very few of the great man's perls of wisdom have actually been translated into English. That is clearly a shocking omission!

Matti Nykänen

Last Monday, former ski-jumping champion Matti Nykänen started a 16 month prison sentence in Kupio for aggravated assault on his on-off wife Mervi Tapola in 2009.

This is just the most recent twist in the “car crash” life Nykänen has led since retiring from top-flight (fortuitous pun) ski-jumping in the late 1980s.

The i-Trick

This summer, a group of us were walking along Esplanadi in Helsinki on our way to the restaurant Kapelli, when Noah, aged 14 and visiting from the UK, declared: “I’ve been thinking... Finnish is quite easy really!”